Reminiscent
by Hit by a Parked Car
Summary: A single SPARTAN-IV and his A.I. Companion is sent to an uncharted planet just recently detected by the UNSC. It's anyone's guess what they find down there. Though it's probably highly predictable. (( Probably going to be following the timeline of the RWBY show, though modified as I'm too lazy to follow it completely and exactly. )) Rated T for some violence and swearing, etc
1. Sort-Of-Like-A-Prologue

The UNSC Wraith, a Prowler-class vessel, slowly drifts closer to its destination. From the outside, it looks normal. However, on the inside... it's empty. Devoid of crew and life.

At least, until you take a look at the makeshift hangar bay. A single, unarmored SPARTAN-IV walks towards a heavily modified Pelican dropship, pushing a crate into the blood tray.

'Blood tray,' he muses. 'Accurate name. How many of the dying and the wounded were kept in there as they evacuated?' Pushing the crate was a laughably easy task, thinking of his time in the UNSC Infinity. Three marines had practically fallen asleep over a crate similar to this after pushing it to a loading bay.

Task finished, he jogs to the armory to suit up. As he passes some monitors and screens, they flicker to a simulated-3d image of a pale blue fire flaring. The SPARTAN quickly looks away from the screens, making a noise of disgust. The simulated depth of flat monitors always made him sick and dizzy after a while.

A disembodied voice reverbs off the walls of the armory, coming from the speakers. "Hello, SPARTAN. Your choice of armor today?" The SPARTAN sighs. Even the A.I. knew of his vanity issues. "Nothing special. Enforcer, Orbital. Helmet and armor, respectively. Dynasty VISR system. Pepper and just a generic dark shade of blue."

"Of course, sir. Please stand inside the rings for me to enable your vanity." "Shut up, Brez." The retort draws a deep chuckle from the A.I. as robotic arms slide to the ring on stands, holding the armor pieces over the ring as the SPARTAN walks to the center. The armor is put on in a heartbeat, the robotic arms having recieved an improvement to their speed in case of an emergency where SPARTAN-IVs required a quick suit-up.

The SPARTAN steps out of the ring and to a wall. A green light above the wall lights up and the wall rotates horizontally, revealing a large weapon rack, neatly divided from small arms to heavy weapons, with various upgrades. He immediately walks to the Battle Rifles and picks out a silenced variant with a Sentinel scope, then to the DMRs and picks out a seemingly plain one with a Sentinel scope as well, until the tip of the barrel lights up from the Kinetic Bolts (( I forgot what these were called again )) being activated. The SPARTAN grins at the sight, recalling how many opponents he distingerated with it during War Games. He tucks the DMR under his left arm and slings the BR on his back, then grabs a Projection Sight SMG, with the Energy Blade (( I also forgot what it was actually called )) deactivated, of course. Attaching that to his sidearm holster, he starts to head out, picking two fragmentation grenades along the way and clipping them to his belt. Back to the Pelican. As he leaves the armory, the wall light turns off and the wall flips back to a normal, well, wall.

As the SPARTAN arrives at the hangar, he wonders what exactly he'll find at the end of his mission. It's strange, even absurd when he's assigned a scouting mission. He's known to blow his cover in War Games for a free, stylish assassination kill at least once per match. The disembodied voice interrupts his thoughts. "Don't forget to take me with you. I run your scanning equipment, remember?" "Yeah, yeah." The SPARTAN walks over to a hologram projector and inserts an A.I. chip into it for a brief second, then plucks it back out, now having a pale blue glow as he inserts it into the port in his neck. He shivers as the feeling of Brez joining his thoughts flows through his body, though he shakes his head to clear it. "I seriously hate that," the SPARTAN remarks. "Strange how the techies haven't figured out why it does that." Brez chuckles inside his head. What a weird sensation. "And I wonder why you're even a SPARTAN, with all this in your head." "Shut. Uuuuuuup."

He slides into the pilot seat of the Pelican, pressing a button to close the bay door as other dials and switches are flipped and adjusted for takeoff. "Brez, cloak the Prowler when we exit the hangar, leave automatic maintenance running." "Got it. Want me to have the automated coffee maker running for your return?" The SPARTAN actually, for a legitimate moment, considers this. "That'd be nice. Thank you." "No problem. I wasn't actually serious, but alright." The Pelican rumbles as the engine comes to life, the landing gear is taken up, and the dropship slowly hovers out of the hangar and flies to the planet below the Prowler. As the Pelican departs, the UNSC Wraith vanishes from sight.


	2. Strange Beings

**A/N: On this chapter, I play around with formatting the story/fanfic/whatever. I am still unfamiliar with Fanfiction in general. Let me know what you think about it, and maybe how I can generally improve.**

 **A/N: On a side note, what do you think his name should be? The SPARTAN. Who else am I talking about.**

 _Unknown Planet, Airspace_

"I have identified a clearing for us to land, sir." The reverb of Brez's voice inside the SPARTAN's head snaps him out of his daydreaming. Actually, what do you call it when you daydream during the evening? "Putting it on screen now."

"Thanks, Brez." The SPARTAN tilts the Pelican towards the marked area, the dropship smoothly responding to his controls. "Any signs of life?"

"Other than the flora below us?" Brez chuckles. As of the moment, the two are flying over a green forest to the clearing previously mentioned.

"Shut up."

"Scans have picked up a bird or two, though they look nothing like the ones we have at home." The image of a pale blue fire flares next to the SPARTAN on a holographic projector. "The scans have also picked up strange readings below the forest canopy, however, due to the thickness of the forest, I was unable to correctly identify the pings."

"You could have just said 'The usual', you know" the SPARTAN sarcastically replied. "It's not like every mission I was assigned to had a faulty scan for some reason."

No response. As the dropship flies closer to the clearing, the SPARTAN stands up out of his seat, handing the controls over to the A.I. as he walked back to the 'blood tray'. "I'm going to set up the gear before landing."

"Don't slip."

"Quiet."

 _Unknown Planet, Forest Clearing._

A makeshift campsite had been set up in the clearing, having a relatively large tent to accomadate the size of a SPARTAN-IV, a campfire, generator, holographic projector, and of course, a weapon rack and two sentry gun placements behind sandbags. 'Nothing like a little flair to show you don't mess around,' the SPARTAN thought. 'Even though there's probably no way there are humans on this planet that can understand the threat shown to them, the threat being automated sentries.'

As the sun slowly rose over the mountains, the SPARTAN decides that maybe it was time to move on in the mission. He grabs his three weapons and, after a moment of consideration, a single grenade. "Brez, take control of the turrets and guard the Pelican. I don't want my only way off this planet destroyed somehow." The reponse he recieved were the two sentry turrets being activated and shining pale blue lasers, scanning the area. He walks off into the forest.

 _Unknown Planet, Middle of ******* Nowhere._

After a good hour of pushing through the foliage, enough time for the sun to cast its bright light over the forest, the SPARTAN, again, wonders what his superiors at ONI even expected him to find on this planet. If it were Forerunner artifacts, they would have sent in an excavation team, not him. If it was a scouting mission, they would have sent an actual scouting party, not him. 'I guess secrets are secrets,' he thought. 'But that doesn't-'

His thoughts were interrupted by a low growl from the bushes. He dashes to a nearby tree and puts his back to it, drawing the SMG from his side and turning on the blade, pointing it where he thought the noise was coming from. The motion tracker suddenly starts picking up signatures shifting everywhere around him. 'Where did they come from? Is the tracker being jammed? What's going on?'

A black form suddenly comes flying out from where he was aiming, and is immediately greeted with a hail of gunfire from the SMG. Dropping to the ground with a roar and a thud, the SPARTAN soon realizes he is not alone. The forest is suddenly alive with the roars of beasts.

'F**k that, time to go!' The SPARTAN strafes around the tree his back was to and sprints off, spraying bullets behind him. Another black form, now registered as looking similar to a wolf of some sort, leaps out from his right. He slides under the lunge while cutting the beast's abdomen open with the blade, killing it. 'How many of these things are there?! The motion tracker wasn't lying, the entire forest is filled with these things!' Quickly reloading, he continues to spray the SMG behind him, but the signatures on his upgraded motion sensor still reads multiple entities behind him. 'I'm not ending up as some dog's lunch!'

All of a sudden, the motion tracker reads one unidentified contact speeding through the red blips, wiping them all out. At the same time, to match, he hears loud gunfire and the sound of things being sliced in half. He rolls to the side as one of the wolf things speeds out from behind another bush and takes out two trees before falling to the ground, dead. 'What..?' He slowly dumps out the magazine and slaps in another one, cautiously moving to the carnage.

A circular area of the forest was taken out, trees chopped down cleanly. The bodies of the monsters were scattered everywhere, with varying degrees of damage, from bullet holes to being cleaved in half. And in the center of it all...

The SPARTAN puts away the SMG and instead takes out the DMR, activating Kinetic Bolts and aiming at the red-cloaked figure. "Halt. Identify yourself." The figure turns around and... the gun lowers a little. 'Is that a little girl?!'

Before he could say anything else, the girl practically bolts to him with a flash of red and rose petals and is clambering on his arm, staring at the gun and practically squealing with delight. "Ohmygosh, isthatafiregunI'veneverseenanythinglikeitcanIhaveitcanIborrowitpleasejustforalittlebitIwannashootit-"

"Ahem."

The girl looks up into the visor and quickly slides off, ducking her head and mumbling apologies. "Sorry..."

The SPARTAN could not help but smile from under his helmet and puts up his gun, looking down at the girl. 'Seems friendly. She did take out all of the th- wait a minute.' "How did you do that?" When the girl looks up at him with a clueless expression, he clarifies. "I mean, how did you just kill all of those things?"

"Huh? Oh, the Beowolves? They're a piece of cake. Who are you? I didn't see you at the launch pads... or anywhere, actually." The girl tilts her head curiously.

'I can't blow my cover now.' Coming up with a quick alias, he replies with "I'm... not from around these parts. I got lost in the forest a while ago."

"Huh. You entered Emerald Forest, where students from Beacon go through an initiation." The girl was rather surprised at the reply she gets.

 _Updated: Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest_

"Beacon? What's that, a... school?"

She looks rather shocked. "How could you not know what Beacon is? It's the place where Hunters and Huntresses come from! It's the best place ever!"

"I lived under a rock, so to speak." The SPARTAN looks pretty uncomfortable. He's on unidentified territory. 'I don't even think they've heard of the UNSC.'

The girl looks at him a little more, then to his armor. "Are you a mercenary from Atlas? That armor looks really cool..."

'Oh thank Christ.' "Yeah, I'm from Atlas. Made the armor and weapons myself. ... Say, what's your name?"

The girl immediately perks up. "Oh, I'm Ruby Rose! I'm currently going through the initiation set for me by Professor Ozpin! Which... oh, I'd better get going, I need to find my teammate!"

"Hang on a second, mind if I come along? I want to see this Beacon place for myself, if they all train... Hunters-slash-Huntresses like you." 'I need to make myself comfortable here, get a feel for the place,' he thought. 'Nevermind that this place actually has humans that apparently hunt monsters like this... Beowolves, right?'

Ruby takes a second to think. "Mmmm... sure, why not. I need to find my partner and find some artifacts in a ruin or something..."

'Artifacts, huh? Better check this out, could be Forerunner.' He checks his DMR and stands at the ready. "Do you know where to go?"

 _Unidentified Planet, Unidentified Tower, Unidentified Office, Some Two Hours Ago..._

Professor Ozpin lightly sips from his coffee mug, watching surveillance footage from cameras planted in the forest. His attention is caught as a dropship, not unlike the Bullhead, lands in a clearing in the Emerald Forest. He raises an eyebrow as a heavily armed figure walks out of the rear bay, pushing a large crate with ease. "Hmmm..."

 **A/N: Again, I hope you have the patience to bear with the typing of a noob. Write a review! It helps me a lot. Even though you probably tuned these words out since you see them so often.**


	3. Tis But A Minor Scuffle I Had

**A/N: I envy those who have the mental capability cram more than a thousand words per chapter. And on that note, it seems like this crossover has, in fact, gotten more favorites than I thought it would. Thank you all for having the patience to watch a noob write his first stories with an arguably small word count.**

 **A/N: I feel like I should apologize for borrowing Ruby's gun nuttiness, a very common trope, but eh, I dunno. It felt right. I might end up doing the same with the rest of RWBY.**

 **A/N: First one to suggest a name for the SPARTAN has that name put in. An ACTUAL name. But not like the Pubert incident in one of those Achievement Hunter Minecraft LetsPlays. For now, he will be using his serial number.**

 _Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest, Some 30 Minutes After Chapter 2_

'Thank God Ruby didn't notice the gap in my alias.' the SPARTAN thought.

An attentive person would have noticed that according to his alias, he somehow doesn't know what Beacon is, lived under a rock so to speak, and yet carries around armor and weapons comparable and maybe even outright better than Atlasean armor, AND also claims that he made them. See the gap now?

'The second I find a library, I am going to tank in history.' he thought. 'I need to find a good origin story fast, or someone is going to call my bluff and I am going to... Actually, I don't even know what would happen, but I should expect the worst.'

His thoughts continue for a while before he looks around and realizes Ruby had dashed off somewhere, judging from the flower petals still falling. "What the- Aw, Christ."

Before he could sprint off after Ruby by following the trail of petals, he hears a roar behind him, accompanied by the sound of trees being torn out of the ground and falling. Turning around, he can see a massive black form knocking trees out of the way... and headed straight towards him. He raises the DMR and fires off two Kinetic Bolts at it, but it only seems to anger the beast. Another roar, coming from his right, sounds off and he groans.

'Sonova-'

His thought is trashed when a tree trunk is smashes and is practically launched towards his face.

"Biiiiitch!" The SPARTAN curses, diving out of the way as the trunk tumbles over him and takes out additional trees. Rolling upright, he gets a good look at the thing for the first time.

It has a pretty close resemblance to a bear that's demonic, very angry (since it's standing on hind legs), and about twice the size of a normal bear. It leans down, roaring. The SPARTAN does not hesitate in putting a shot into the mouth of the beast, making it reel back. It recovers, though, and seemingly glares down at the SPARTAN, looking very ticked off.

"Dude. Take some breath mints. Maybe something to cover up that face of yours, like a bodybag."

 **A/N: And this is where everyone wants me to ship this OC with Yang.**

He sends off two more shots at the beast before registering the second monster on his right. The attempt to retaliate to the incoming threat fails as a massive claw smashes him aside, draining his shields instantly and sending him tumbling to the ground. His DMR lands away from him.

'Owww... that's gonna leave a bruise.' He looks up and sees a double-handed overhand smash meant for his skull, but he rolls aside, flicking the SMG from his side and turns on the blade while slashing at the paw in one swift stroke. Of course, this does nothing but anger the demonic bear, as it tries to slash at him again. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake again, the SPARTAN nimbly rolls under the paw, slashing at it again and putting some rounds into the creature's face. It staggers, and he presses on the assault, emptying the mag. He pops it out and reloads as the beast drops dead in front of him, but there's no time to celebrate, as the other monster charges at him, seeking to avenge its fallen comrade. Rolling aside, the SPARTAN sprints to the DMR, spraying bullets behind him as he slides and snatches the rifle off the ground, then flicks the gun to the beast's head.

"Eat this."

The beast roars at him, but suddenly stops as it seems to flinch, then it slowly drops to the floor. There's a katana-esque blade stuck in the spine of the creature, a ribbon of some sort connected to the hilt. And the ribbon is being held by a...

'... What magic hell of a planet did I just land on?' The ribbon is being held by a girl wearing a pretty large black bow on top of her head, with a black and white color pallete for her clothes that show a little midriff. The black on her leggings does fade into a dark purple, though. 'Another... uh, Huntress? Is that what they're called?' His body flickers yellow as the shield starts regenerating and forming a bubble around him, slowly fading away.

The girl yanks the ribbon upward and it rips the sword out of the evaporating creature's spine, back into her hand and smoothly sheathes it into a wide...

'Good Lord, that "sheathe" already looks like it can act as a massive cleaver, with that sharpened edge.'

Smirking at him, the girl speaks in a soft voice. "You know, if you could point that gun away from me and take your finger off the trigger, that'd be great."

'Oop.' The SPARTAN feels that there's no need to feel threatened by the girl. Ruby had said that this was forest was grounds for an initiation by Beacon. He lowers the gun and flicks the safety on.

"... I coulda killed it."

"Why didn't you?"

"You already killed it."

"But why didn't you take the shot anyway? For all you knew, it was still alive and standing."

"... Shut up." The SPARTAN shakes his head, standing up and casually reloading his guns and dusting himself off. 'The damn girl is still smirking at me.'

The girl calmly walks over. "You know, if that face shield of yours was so you could pick whom you got eye contact with and thus your partner, that's a pretty low move."

'Is that also something that happens during the initiation?' he silently wonders. "No. I'm not from around here. I'm looking for a girl named Ruby, though, have you seen her?"

The girl raises an eyebrow. "If you're not from around here, how do you know that name?"

'Shit. This is a smart one. I need to work on that alias fast.' The SPARTAN smoothly replies, putting up his rifle. "I met her in the forest. She was looking for her partner. Dashed off somewhere and then those two things came out behind me."

"They're Ursae. I was watching you the entire time you were fighting. " came the soft reply. "You handled yourself pretty well, though one mistake you somehow made was the fact that you registered the second Ursa, but you didn't try to spread your bullets between threats. That nearly got you killed."

 **A/N: Is it Ursae or Ursas?**

He scoffs. "Please. This armor can take a couple of oversized bear punches." Looking around and lowering the rifle, he mentally slaps himself. "Do you know where Ruby went?"

"She'll be fine. The students in the initiation are all searching for the same set of artifacts in one of the ruins scattered across the Emerald Forest." She starts walking off, the SPARTAN following.

"Now hang on. If you know I'm not from around here, what makes you think I know what the deal with the initiation is?" The SPARTAN asks this question to test the girl. 'How detailed am I going to have to make my alias?'

Without turning around, the girl replies. "If Ruby hasn't told you, which I'm sure she has with that big mouth of hers, you surely must have heard of Beacon's famed initiation methods."

'... Very detailed.' The SPARTAN inwardly groans. 'Damnit.' "Hit the nail on the head. Oh, and by the way, what's your name?"

"Want to tell me yours first?"

"Classified."

"A soldier, I see?"

"... Basically. I'm a wanderer from Atlas. You can call me by serial number, E-4157."

"Of course. You may call me Blake."

 **A/N: Reminder. This is very AU, as I will only use locations, slightly-heavily modified events, and characters from the RWBY world for this story. Another reminder, as always, is write a review, maybe demanding longer chapters? Unless the lot of you are fine with the current chapter length I put up, I'll try to extend the stories.**


	4. Trees Burn And Runaway Spartans

**A/N: I decided to go on a short typing binge for the Reminiscent crossover. Strange. I never had this kind of motivation before in my life. Oh well, I hope you enjoy the story! I might cover the entire RWBY storyline from Season 1 two 3 (hahah see what I did there), but that depends entirely on how well this goes.**

 _Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest. About 20 Minutes From Chapter 3._

The SPARTAN, now known as E-4157, runs for his life amid a hail of trees, dirt, explosions and firey blasts. His mouth constantly spouting a stream of curses as he runs, any cover he might have used eradicated by the sentient glowing fireball behind him. What could have gone so wrong? He's almost blasted off his feet as his shields flicker, trying to block the heat and debris from getting to him, but he continues sprinting on.

 _Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest. About 5 Minutes Prior._

"So, what exactly do the artifacts you people are searching for look like?" The SPARTAN asks. "Anything can look like an artifact in a bunch of decaying structures."

Blake shrugs, now walking beside the SPARTAN. "Professor Ozpin only said that the artifacts will look familiar, and they'll all be in the same spot. As to what they exactly are, I have no idea."

So far, the SPARTAN's almost annoyed at how Blake rarely talks without prompt. 'Nothing like the rowdy bunch in War Games. I almost miss that chaotic simulation. ...What am I saying, of course I miss that place. Bragging rights for days, man!' A pause in his thoughts. 'Maybe I should try to get more information about this Beacon thing.' "So Blake, what's being enrolled in Beacon like?"

"It's interesting, in a way. I haven't gotten to see much of it other than a little bit of the campus grounds and the room everyone had to sleep in before being assigned official dorms after completing the initation."

"You... both genders had to sleep in a crowded room?"

"Mhmm."

'The hell? What sort of school even does that, anyway? Even the Infinity has their locker rooms separate. It's not like-' Surprisingly, Blake speaks first.

"Does the E in your ID stand for anything?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Everest."

"Mmm... Mind if I refer to you as Everest, then? At least, until you feel comfortable enough to give me your actual name? It feels a little clumsy to refer to you by your entire serial number."

He shrugs. "Whatever you feel like. Going by Everest here is fine."

Suddenly, the roar of an Ursa is heard. Without a further thought or statement, Everest (A/N as we will now refer to him as until a name is chosen) raises his DMR and goes to the source of the roar, already hearing loud gunshots and blasts following the roar. Blake unsheathes her blade and follows Everest, running ahead. She ends up rolling aside to evade the body of an Ursa as it tumbled past her, dead. Everest clambers over the corpse and drops off of it, rolling and continuing to run. In a small clearing up ahead, the back of an Ursa is presented, the bear seemingly focused on something in front of it. He raises his gun and aims it in the middle of its spine. Blake looks at him and shouts "Wait!" but it's a late warning, and he fires.

The middle of the Ursa is blasted open by a small explosion, and reveals the head of a blonde girl, whos hair is comparable to a lion's mane. The bullet sails right on through, and the blonde somehow ducks under the shot even though the bullet was already in flight.

"Whoa!"

The body of the Ursa topples to its side, revealing more of the girl, looking like she's up for a fight. Everest quickly puts up his DMR, raising his other hand. "Sorry. Didn't know you were right in front of it."

Blake rolls her eyes and steps forward. "Hello, Yang."

Yang smiles, perking up and standing down when she sees her. "Hey Blake! That your partner?"

Blake shakes her head no. "He's a wanderer from Atlas. I suppose we're partners now if you haven't found anyone yet."

Yang shrugs, stepping over the legs of the Ursa and walking to Blake. "Ah, I was looking for my sister Ruby. I wouldn't want her to get hurt."

Everest pops the clip out of the rifle and manually slides in a fresh round. "Ruby should be fine. She already found her own partner and left me to go find her. Rather suddenly, I might add." He faces Yang with the visor. "You alright? I'm sorry, that shot was way too close."

Yang grins. How anyone manages to keep this kind of attitude after nearly getting killed, Everest does not know. "Aw, it's alright. I'm Yang! Who aarreee..." A thin strand of golden hair, presumably from the close shave Yang had, slowly floats down in front of her eyes and she goes cross eyed looking at it. Blake gasps, and Everest looks at her. Blake's wide eyed, and looks at Everest, then back to Yang, then back to Everest, mouthing a single word: "Run."

Everest looks confused, if anyone can look confused inside armor like that. "Why-" He's interrupted when a massive explosion sounds out from where Yang was standing, and to his surprise, she's standing in the middle of it, lilac iris turned pure red, hands clenched into fists, and hair streaming upwards and on fire. Yang screams at him, "YOU BASTARD!" and practically flies at him, fists raised already.

Everest comically lowers his gun arm and slouches over, universal "Are you f**king kidding me?!" stance. "... Crud."

 _Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest. Present._

'I mean, I know some girls love their hair, but this is just bloody ridiculous,' he says to himself as he tries to outrun what basically is a Kill Ball behind him. He had been running for some time now, exactly for how long, he doesn't know. "Take a chill pill, Jesus!" he calls behind him as he uses his evasive thrusters to strafe away from another shot taken at him, blasting another tree and igniting it.

The high pitched voice screams at him, promising revenge, pain, and death in many different ways. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU, ASSHOLE! I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN SKULL!"

'Beating someone to death with their own skull? That doesn't seem physically possible,' he says to himself as the threat is shouted, followed by another red flare sailing past his head and exploding in front of him, scattering dirt and such into his visor. He tries to brush off the dirt, only smearing it across his visor more. As if for insult to injury, another one of Yang's shots lands right at his feet, this time sending him flying and off a cliff that he would have ran right off of anyway. His shields manage to hold as he plummets. The heat from the explosion turned the dirt on his visor into chunks that he could scrape off, clearing his vision just in time for his helmeted face to smash into the ground. Thankfully, SPARTAN-IV armor negates most of the trauma from colliding with the ground at a high speed.

"Owww... jeez..." Everest slowly picks himself up off the ground, looking up. Oh. Hey. Those are some ancient ruins over there. How convenient. His shields slowly regenerate as he stands up, dusting himself off and noticing an orange glow in the corner of his eye. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what it is. "... God DAMNIT give me a friggin' break!" Everest breaks out into another sprint, trying to get extra distance from the soon-to-be-crater. Seconds later, another scream sounds behind him, and a massive explosion and heat wave goes off behind him, draining the energy shields a bit. He pushes himself to run faster, running to the ruined structure. As he gets closer, he can see a half-circle of stands, each with something small on top. 'Those are probably the artifacts, but not like-'

His thoughts, for, like, the seventh time since he landed on this planet, are interrupted once again as another blast sails past his head and smashes into an eroding wall, speeding up its decomposition rate by several thousand times. 'Any longer and I'm going to have to shoot someone.' A chain of shots sound off behind him, but no fireballs are sent at him. He risks turning around only to see a flaming comet fly at him, with Yang at its head, fist raised. He doesn't even have time to react as the fist collides with his face, blasting the shield away. The SPARTAN is heavier and more durable than he looks, the punch not sending him flying as Yang intended, and instead the force of Yang flying at such a speed smashing their bodies into one another and they both go down in a tumble.

After the dust subsides, Everest gets a clear look at Yang's red eyes and flaring blond hair as she's basically straddling his chest. As well as raised fist with a sort of gauntlet with a belt of shotgun shells on it. There also just so happens to be the SMG pointed at Yang's face with the blade extended. A minute passes, then Yang rolls off of him and extends a hand to help him up. "Anyway, name's Yang. What's yours?" She does not sound angry at all. Her hair is back to normal and so are her eyes. He hesitantly takes the hand and stands up, dusting himself off.

"... What the HELL is wrong with you?!"

 _Unidentified Planet, Emerald Forest, Unidentified Ruins, A Minute Later._

After Blake finally caught up to them and had to stop the second fight from starting, calming Yang down, and getting the two to formally introduce each other, Everest looks over to the stands, now seeing that the "artifacts" are actually chess pieces.

"I suppose that's it?" Blake says, crossing her arms.

"Yep!" Yang skips over to a stand, looking at the "artifact". Turning around, Everest sees her holding a golden Knight piece to Blake. "How about a cute little pony?" To which Blake rolls her eyes and smiles, walking to her.

Everest just lowers the gun, sighing. "Reminds me of high school." He walks back to Blake and Yang, who are now both looking up and looking rather stunned. Looking up, he sees the object of their fascination. It's Ruby, plummeting from the sky, only to have her fall intercepted by a blonde boy crashing into her from somewhere, sending them both flying into the trees. Blake and Yang look stunned, and for good reason.

"... Did your sister just fall out of the sky?"

Everest, meanwhile, just picks dirt and mud off of his rifle. At this point, he's numb to whatever fresh hell he landed on. He can fully expect this sort of thing to be a daily occurance. Hearing another Ursa roar, he spins around, but only catching sight of the monster just in time to see a pink explosion blast the monster in the back, felling it. An orange-haired girl rolls over it, then goes to inspect the evaporating corpse. His raised rifle lowers as a boy appears behind it, seemingly out of breath. The guy doesn't seem to realize that the girl had already dashed off to the stands and picked the Rook piece, after which she'd start singing "I'm Queen Of The Castle" or something. After which she stops cold as the boy shouts her name. "Nora!"

Nora giggles. "Coming, Ren!"

Yang has her mouth hanging open. "Did she just ride an Ursa all the way here?"

Before Blake could respond, a red-haired girl comes running out of the trees, which are soon knocked down thanks to a giant scorpion that's actively flailing its pincers at her as she dodges out of the way, calling out a name. 'John? What was that, now?' And then, suddenly, Ruby comes sailing out of the trees, rolling to her feet beside Yang, who looks ecstatic to see her sister return. "Ruby!"

"Yang!"

The orange-haired girl jumps between them as they were about to hug. "Nora!"

"Euck!"

"Ack!"

Everest facepalms. He was just starting to like the atmosphere Blake, Yang, and Ruby provided, and then suddenly, everything turns into a teenager's sitcom. He's going to call his superiors later and ask if he can get off this planet and have some others go in his place. This already looks stupid to him.

Meanwhile, Blake's speaking. "... Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Yang immediately flares up after Blake's statement, which Everest can't help but take two steps away from. He is NOT getting close to that sh*t again.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANY MORE! CAN'T YOU ALL JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING _CRAZY_ HAPPENS AGAIN?!"

As the two seconds pass with Ren finally catching up to them, whom Everest now notices has a pink streak of hair, Blake points upward. 'Ohhhh boy. Please don't.'

"Ruby?! How could you leave me?!" Looking up, Everest notices a giant raven-like bird with something white hanging off its tail, presumably a person.

"I said jump..." -Ruby

"She's gonna fall." -Blake

"She'll be fine..." -Ruby

"She's falling." -Ren

As the girl falls, the blonde boy that had crashed into Ruby a few seconds prior leaps out of the trees to catch her, only to realize that he just jumped from the top of a forest tree and plummet to the ground, the girl using Jaune as a soft surface to land on. '... Ow. I felt that.' Everest winces. The red-haired girl, meanwhile, had gotten hit by the Death Stalker and lands in front of him. Yang sarcastically says "Great! The whole gang's here! Now we can all die together!"

"Not if I can help it!" Everest snaps his head towards Ruby, who was currently running off to the giant scorpion. "Ruby, wait!" She doesn't listen, whipping out a massive scythe, unfolding from what looks like a red, blocky cricket bat. Everest sighs. "A weapon like that, she's fine."

To his surprise, not only does the scythe propel Ruby to a high speed towards the monster, but the monster just basically slaps Ruby aside with a claw. 'I guess that's how Yang caught up to me,' Everest thought as he starts running to Ruby.

"D-don't worry! I'm fine!" Clearly not fine, as Ruby turns around and goes face to face with the giant scorpion. Firing a shot at its face, which it just shrugged off, Ruby turns tail and runs, spinning her scythe back into its compact form. Yang had decided to run after Everest to get to Ruby.

"SCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"

The massive raven makes its appearance, flying above Ruby and launches some of its massive feathers at Ruby like a massive carpet bomb of giant Needler rounds. Everest and Yang had to roll to the side, Everest cursing all the while. When Everest got back up, amid all the feathers planted into the ground, Ruby had her cape impaled by a feather, and behind her, the Death Stalker slowly raised its stinger for the kill. Cursing again, he pulls out the one grenade he has and looks towards Yang, calling her name to get her attention. "Yang! Punch it!" He primes the grenade and tosses it into the air, Yang quickly recovering, jumping to the grenade while it was still in the air, and as the fist descended upon the grenade, Everest prayed that the grenade wouldn't detonate.

With a jarring punch, Yang sends the grenade flying straight at the Death Stalker's face like a fastball, exploding on contact. The scorpion screeches, backing off. Everest raises the rifle and fires twice to sever the feather so Ruby could slide what's basically now a pole out of the hole in her cape and runs straight to Yang, who immediately wraps Ruby in a hug at what's probably the relief of seeing her sister NOT get killed.

"Go! Get away from the thing, grab a chess piece, bail out!" Everest shouted, half to Ruby and Yang, half to everyone else at the ruined structure. Getting the message, every pair who didn't grab a chess piece dashes to the stands and snatches one for themselves, as the scorpion recovers and the raven starts to circle back.

 _Unidentified Planet, Edge Of The Emerald Forest, Ancient Ruins._

'I hope the turrets Brez took control over has enough ammo to hold off whatever comes at him' Everest thought as he ran alongside the others. 'It would suck if I got stuck on this planet, because it is BATSH*T INSANE.' Taking cover by some crumbling pillars, Everest ducks around the pillar he used as cover and raises his rifle at the giant raven. Whatever it is. He calls to the others.

"Should I take a shot?"

The white-haired girl, now known as Weiss, calls back. "Save it. Nothing you have right now will work on that thing. Who are you, anyway?"

Ruby punches the girl. "Later. We have something to do right now."

Weiss glares at Ruby, then sighs, peeking around the pillar as the giant raven screeches from a massive, crumbling stone tower, challenging them. Everest turns around, mentally slapping himself for the third time. 'Crap. Where's the scorpion thing?' "Everyone, eyes out for the Death Stalker! The grenade didn't kill it!"

Everyone nods, though as if on queue, the massive scorpion comes baring out of the trees, a black blast mark on its face plating.

The cracking voice of Jaune calls out. "Aw, man, run!" They all scatter, running towards the crumbling structure supported by columns that seem to come from the foggy, bottomless hole. Everest looks back, seeing Ren and Nora running across, evading the incoming feathers. The girl manages to pull out a grenade launcher and fires at the screeching bird. Everest's eyes trace the grenade in the air and- 'Jesus, what kind of grenade is that? It's like a flak cannon!'

"Run for the bridge, the thing can't get us there!" Everest calls out as they all change paths to the bridge. Upon reaching the bridge, Everest looks back and notices that the Death Stalker halted at the bridge, its pincers snapping angrily. He smirks, only to have a massive red blip appear on his motion tracker and approach his yellow dot. 'Aw, crap.'

The raven-esque monster blows right through the bridge, shattering the middle and separating the students from each other. As they recover, Blake looks around. "Wait, where's Everest?"

Ruby waves her off. "No time, we need to take these two Grimm down!"

 _Unidentified Planet, Airspace, Some Hundred Feet Above Ancient Ruins._

'You have got to be f*cking kidding me,' Everest thought as he maintains the grip he has on a bunch of feathers on the Nevermore's back. As the massive bird levels out, he pulls himself up and basically surfs the giant monster. Looking down, he immediately wishes he didn't. 'That's a long drop...' He drops to a kneeling stance, aiming his DMR and switching the Sentinel scope's magnification from 4x to 6x. A small improvement. He starts firing from the top of the beast, sending bright yellow rounds spattering on the faceplate of the Death Stalker. It seems to knock it back more than the bullets from either Ren or Pyhrra would. Reloading, he takes aim at the Death Stalker again from his elevated position when the bird starts descending. Everest drops flat, and hangs on for his life. As if things didn't get crazy enough, Blake practically teleports on the beast's head and starts slashing it, her slashes stopping and eyes going wide as she saw Everest clinging on its back.

"Sup." Blake didn't have time to reply, as she was running across and jumps off on a cracked stone wall. Everest, meanwhile, is breathing a sigh of relief as the bird gains altitude and levels out. Going into a kneeling stance again, Everest notices a bunch of colored flashes headed toward his Nevermore mount. Instinctively shielding his face with his gun steadying hand, and then using that hand to steady himself as the beast shifts and screeches as bullets and blasts strike. Everest swore he saw a curving bright blue laser flash in front of him and miss. 'They're shooting this thing while I'm up here? They nuts?! Oh, wait a minute. Reality check. I'm on a world where this sh*t apparently happens often. I came from a world where this kind of crap does not happen at all, whatsoever. I need to adjust my strategy.'

Steadying himself and rising to a kneeling position, he grabs the SMG and turns on the blade, and starts running to the head, where he starts slashing wildly at the neck area, doing much more damage than Blake's sword and cleaver. The bird screeches and starts shaking to make him fall off, but Everest hangs on. At least, until he gets to his destination. Suddenly, the bird starts descending, dropping, rather. He quickly jumps off, activating thrusters and hovering in the air and looking down at the Death Stalker, who's stinger currently has a Ren shooting the stinger. 'Smart... but that thing is about to get the shock of its life.' His thrusters charge and flare, sending him flying at unnatural speeds at the scorpion, a Ground Pound. As he falls, he notes that Ren is gone from the tail and the stinger is still on, but very weak. Jaune shouted something to Pyhrra and she throws her shield at the stinger, cutting it and dropping it on the head of the Death Stalker. 'Heheheh... Target confirmed.' Everest raises his fist, shouting, "Night night, motherfucker!" The three students look up, jaws dropping, as he _smashes_ the stinger into its skull, sending the creature's chin into the bridge, which served as a seesaw to launch the three off and back onto solid land again. Meanwhile, Everest scrambles up and sprints off of the falling beast and barely clambers onto the dirt, rolling upright as Ren returns with shaky footsteps, then falling facefirst onto the ground. '... I feel sorry for his nose.' He thought.

Turning around, he notices the other four are still shooting at the thing, when Ruby looks to Weiss and says something, then the two dash off. 'They got a plan? I want to see this one.' Looking behind him, he asks something he'd probably regret. "Any of you able to boost me to the bridge?" Immediately Nora jumps up from her sitting position, raising her hand. "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!"

'I am going to regret all of this.' he thought as Nora prepares her hammer. Like a golf club to a golf ball, she smashes the bottom of his feet, Everest having jumped in a futile attempt to avoid it. And now, he's flying across the sky again, shields sputtering as they failed to stay online. He drops onto the bridge, landing hard, holding his feet, yelling in pain. "Argh! Fuck!" He lays there for a bit, cursing.

 _ **We interrupt this to bring you a third person perspective of soon-to-be Team JNPR.**_

Pyhrra's looking at the huddled form of Everest writhing in pain. "Nora... maybe you shouldn't have... boosted him so hard. You drained his aura in that one swing..."

 **A/N: The flaring of his shields is similar to the Aura shimmering as of Season 3. It's easy to see why Pyhrra mistook the shields for Aura here.**

Nora's also looking across the bridge at Everest, now quickly getting up and running across. "Ah, he's fine. Look, he's on his feet again!" Pyhrra sighs. "All the same, maybe you should have let me do it." She turns around, looking at Nora, then realizing his rifle was laying on the ground. "Uh oh."

 _ **We now return to our original program.**_

'That girl can hit HARD. Jeez louise.'

Everest ran across the bridge to the four students still firing at the Nevermore. As he reaches Ruby who was hanging back, he skids to a halt, looking back at the four on the lower cliff. 'Shit! My rifle!'

"Everest!" Ruby turns around, looking happy to see him. "You came back!"

"Yeah, yeah... dropped my rifle over there," as he grabs the silenced Battle Rifle from his back. "I don't think this thing is any good against that bird."

"Don't worry, I have a plan to kill the Nevermore. Just distract it."

Everest shrugs, putting away the the silenced rifle and instead taking out the SMG, blade extending upon gripping it and firing at it. Ruby stares at the blade, her mouth open. "Whoa..." She quickly snaps out of it, seeing the Nevermore crash into the side of the high cliff. It slowly stands up, screeching. Weiss dashes all the way over to the bird and freezes its tail to the ground, trapping it. Ruby looks at Everest.

"Gotta go. I'll see you later!" She sprints over to a makeshift slingshot made from Blake's ribbon and two stone pillars. Jumping into it, Ruby pushes the slingshot with blasts from her scythe-rifle, and is held there from a glyph Weiss conjurs. 'Magic. Greeaaaat. At least it's an explanation of why everything on this planet exists.'

Ruby is sent flying towards the Nevermore, hooking its neck with her scythe as she lands feet first on the cliff face. Weiss summons more glyphs all the way up the side of the sheer rock face, which seem to allow Ruby to wall run up the cliff at a high speed, dragging the Nevermore by its neck with her scythe until she reaches the top, where the Nevermore's head is severed from its neck. Its lifeless body slowly drops back down as the students look at the falling corpse in wonder, Everest just crossing his arms and smiling under his helmet. 'Not bad, kid. Not bad... I shudder to think of the criminals on this planet, though.' Blake looks over at him, raising an eyebrow. "You alright?" 'I guess I actually shuddered.'

"I'm fine... just wondering how I'm going to introduce myself to Beacon.

 **A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND IT'S OVER! The chapter.**  
 **I'll be honest, I felt like I rushed this one out, especially at the part with the cast of RWBY chatting with each other as monsters that can kill them circle the two. It just felt rather awkward putting that in. I, of course, could have skipped straight past the part by making Kinetic Bolts the kill-all on Grimm, but that's cheap, I wanted everything to be thorough, and I definately did not want to make the SPARTAN overpowered. He might be stronger than Yang in brute force, but he's definately much slower and TRIES to fight tactically. Of course, this doesn't work well when Grimm can knock his cover aside instantly. Oh well. I hope I don't drive this story into a brick wall and crash. ANYWAY, leave a review, it helps me alot, yadyadyada, ciao!**

 **A/N: Also no, Everest was not a suggested name. I just got sick of referring to him as SPARTAN and him and other pronouns. Also, Sierra-117? Everest-4157? Heheheheheh.**


	5. One Incident After The Other

**A/N: Fun fact: The previous chapter's name was a spin of Halo War's 'Work Burns and Runaway Grunts' OST. Speaking of which, I am very sad that I missed the Halo Wars 2 open beta since I'm out of town, country even. Oh well. Time to wait for 8 months for release.**

 _Unidentified Planet, Beacon Academy, Theatre?, Some Hours Later._

"... led by Ruby Rose."

Applause and cheers from the audience. Somewhat-slow clapping came from Everest, who's leaning on a wall next to the doors leading into the theater. He feels like he doesn't belong here. For good reason, too.

"And if the man currently known as 'Everest' could come speak to me in my office later, that would be appreciated." With that, the professor takes his leave offstage.

'Ozpin seems like a smart person, though smart enough to respect someone's situation and privacy.' He thought as he watched the newly-formed Team RWBY walk towards the door. 'Could I trust him with where I actually came from? Of course not. Orders are orders, right?'

"Hi, Everest!" Ruby rather enthusiastically waves at him, drawing the attention of some bystanders. They all seem to focus on Everest, making him uncomfortable. 'It's like they know something I don't,' he thought. 'What am I thinking. Of course they do. Everyone on this planet knows something I don't at this point.'

"Hey, Ruby. Congratulations on being chosen team leader. I don't think Weiss liked that." Sure enough, Weiss looks disappointed, though she tilts her head up and glares at Everest after mentioning it. Yang being Yang, she hugs Ruby from behind and lifts her off the ground.

"Awwww, I'm just so proud of my little baby sister!" To which Ruby socks Yang in the face and they both go down in a flurry of fists and legs. Blake just rolls her eyes, crossing her arms.

"I'd be lying if I said they didn't do this before," she says. "Maybe you should head to the Headmaster's office, Everest. There's an elevator is to the right of the stage. In the meantime, I need to clean up this mess." He nods his thanks and walks to the stage.

'They're all still staring at me...' He shakes his head in an attempt to clear the uneasy feeling.

 _Unidentified Planet, Beacon Academy, Headmaster's Office, About 5 Minutes Later_

"Ah, there you are. Please, take a seat."

Everest steps out of the elevator, looking around. There's a blonde-haired woman next to the single table in the middle of the room, presumably Ozpin's assistant. Ozpin himself is sitting behind the table. There's also what looks like a temporary chair in front of the table.

Approaching, he was about to comply when he takes a second look at the chair in front of Ozpin's table. "With all due respect... sir, if I may call you that, I don't think the chair can take the weight." The headmaster lowers his head somewhat, as if thinking.

"So it well, if you prefer to stand. There are some important matters to discuss," he says as he slides a tablet of some sort towards him and starts swiping. "Like where you came from." Everest crosses his arms. 'Here we go.'

"I'm a traveler from Atlas-" he starts, but Ozpin raises his hand.

"No, 'Everest' if that's your name, I meant where did you actually come from? Truthfully." Everest raises and drops his arms, looking exasperated, but actually panicking inside.

"I was about to tell you that, sir, I-" Ozpin interrupts by sliding the tablet across the table. The tablet is set on a recording in a hidden camera in the Emerald Forest. With a sinking feeling, Everest picks up the tablet. The camera feed shows him landing the dropship in the area, then unpacking and setting up a makeshift campsite.

"Then what were you doing in the Emerald Forest with an unmarked dropship? Nothing like this exists in the entirety of Remnant. Not to mention your gear is worlds more advanced than anything that comes from Atlas, and I can safely say your ship, if scaled larger, is more advanced than the Atlasean flagship." 'Looks like they don't know what's in orbit above them, then.'

 _Updated: Remnant, Beacon Academy, Headmaster's Office._

Everest sighs, pushing the tablet back across the table and crossing his arms. "You got me, Professor. I'm not from this planet. I'm a SPARTAN-IV from the United Nations Space Command, and that's all I'm allowed to say to you. The rest is classified." Ozpin slightly cocks his head, questioning.

"Not from this planet? How is that even possible? Dust does not even function outside our planet's atmosphere." Everest, in turn, cocks his own helmet head.

"I hope you meant some sort of fuel source rather than what unused items collect on a shelf, Professor." Ozpin chuckles, leaning back in his chair.

"I suppose you really are a foreigner to this planet. Very well. I will satisfy your curiosity, but afterwards, we must get to the topic of what to do with you." He puts his hands together under his chin, leaning forward on the desk again. "To you, Dust may be just a multipurpose material. From fuel, to weapon enhancement. But in reality, it's much more. Humans on Remnant only survived from the power the Dust crystals gave us, the power of elements. Fire. Wind. Earth. Et cetera. But for some reason, none of these crystals work as they travel outside Remnant's atmosphere. Which begs the question of how you managed to find a fuel source outside from Dust, but that will come later. The real issue is, of course, what are we going to do with you now?" Everest slightly shudders. 'If Ruby and the others are just students, what's the enforcement like here?' He clears his throat.

"I suppose letting me go is no longer an option." Ozpin nods.

"But turning you into the authorities is another." Noticing Everest's clenched hands at his words, he quickly adds in the alternative. "Or, we could let you stay here as a student at Beacon Academy." To which both Everest and the woman next to Ozpin react to.

"What?"

"What?"

Ozpin smiles, his assistant whirling on him. "But sir, we don't even know what he wa-" To which he'd interrupt with a raised hand.

"Calm down, Glynda. Everest. Do you accept my offer?"

Glynda looks like she wants to continue arguing, but she sighs, and looks at Everest. "Ozpin is giving you a one-in-a-lifetime offer. Whether it is a mistake or not, we will have to see. Do you accept, or not?"

'Am I going to get a history lesson? I'd probably need that, but please don't let it be anything like my third grade teacher.' "I accept, but first, I need to go back to my ship and pack up. Is that acceptable given this situation?

Ozpin nods, smiling. "Of course, Everest. I trust you to keep yourself safe." As Everest turns to leave, however...

"Oh, and by the way, we did intercept video feed from your helmet. I hope you didn't mind giving the entire student body a little show of your skills."

"... Excuse me?!"

 _Remnant, Airspace, 1 Kilometer Above The Emerald Forest, Some 2 Hours Later._

Everest tosses a can of biofoam away out the cockpit door and somewhere into the 'blood tray', muttering curses under his breath. A familiar disembodied voice is heard inside the Pelican.

"Now, now, language. Do you want to bring your potty mouth into school as well?" Brez chided. The SPARTAN does not fall for the bait, ignoring the A.I. and just lightly scratches some deep scratches in his armor. His right shoulder is bloodied.

"I'm seriously about to go ham on the forest with the cannon right now. Fuck that Ursa, screw that Beowolf, eat shit Grimm, you can all go to hell." he rants.

Everest had been attacked by a pack of Beowolves and two Ursae as he was packing his gear. Not being prepared for an ambush, he was forced to flee from the site on the Pelican, but not before one of the Ursae got to him.

"Now come on," Brez said. "At least you made it out alive."

"To hell with that," Everest snaps. "I can look on the bright side of a train wreck and say 'Oh, at least one guy out of every passenger in the train survived'. No, that's a load of crap!" Brez sighs. "What did you lose this time?"

"Like, half of the crate of stuff I brought. Most of the grenades, half the spare magazines I brought, and the entire weapon rack."

"You can easily fly back up to the Wraith to resupply..."

"This planet doesn't even have a fuel source that can go out of the atmosphere. I have enough fuel for about three full trips from this planet to the Wraith and back, and after that I'm stuck here." Brez falls silent. That does seem bad, especially with ONI's expectation that this SPARTAN was able to go on his own for an extended period of time to deliver a wealth of information when he returns. "Not counting the trips I might have to make on the Pelican from one place to another. I don't even know if I'm able to graft a second engine and-slash-or fuel tank to this dropship to conserve fuel while flying in-atmosphere, let alone qualified. And I'm certinally not about to let some egghead try to reverse engineer this tech for themselves."

"... We're approaching the destination," Brez sighs.

 _Remnant, Beacon Academy, Campus, Some 15 Minutes Later_

Everest had calmed down as he walked around the campus of Beacon Academy. 'Remnant may be a hellhole, but it sure can look pretty when monsters aren't trying to rip you to shreds.' he thought, looking around. 'Despite not having the resources the UNSC has, they built this place pretty well. That clocktower is overkill, though. I guess there's no harm in showing off. Now where's that classroom... That it over there?'

Room 111. He quickly approaches the door, as he's already late, but he hears the squealing of a boar. 'Wha...' He opens the door as he hears the shrill voice of Weiss.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Everest's eyes adjust to the classroom just in time to see a black Grimm boar of some sort smash into Weiss, knocking her aside. 'Grimm in the classroom? What the-' Smelling blood, the Grimm hops and turns around, red eyes focusing on the newcomer. The students in the class all slowly turn around to look at him as well. '... F*ck me... I knew I should have cleaned off the blood.'

With an ear-piercing screech, the Grimm rolls into a ball and starts spinning in place like a wheel. Everest notices that there is a straight path in the middle of the classroom through the student desks straight to the door, where he's currently standing. As the students panic and the pig speeds towards him, he braces for impact.

Team RWBY, Weiss included, all have their eyes widen as the Borbatusk charges through the path and crashes into Everest, sending them away from the door and out of sight in a tumble. Ruby gasps. "Oh no! We need to help him!" Blake nods, already standing up.

Professor Port, who had been mostly silent like the rest of the students, speaks up. "Quickly, we must assist the student against the Borbatusk! He-" Any further speech slows and crawls to a halt as the Grimm sails back into the classroom and smashes into the chalkboard, cracking it in half. Mouths hanging open, every student in the class looks back to see an angry, bloody Everest charging through the path, straight for the boar. As the Grimm shakily stands up, he kicks the side of its head, but only staggers it. 'Tough armor. No biggie.' He jumps back, hovering in the air with the thrusters as his forearm plate springs open, allowing him to grab a familiar, curved hilt.

 **SKISSSSSSSSSHHHH! BAM.**

 **A/N: Think Terminal Velocity assasination except with an Energy Sword. (H5)**

Everest yanks the double-pronged plasma blades out of the evaporating pig and deactivates it, sliding it back into his forearm plate. Turning around, he notices half of the students, RWBY included, were halfway out of their seats about to draw their weapon to help him. He just shrugs. "What? I can take on a pig."

Professor Port puts away his blunderbaxe (Whatever it is). "Hoho! You must be the new student, Everest! Though I mean no offense when I say you look more like a soldier from Atlas than you do a student.

"I'll take that as a compliment. But what's a Grimm doing inside the classroom?"

"Hands-on practice, of course! There's only so much you can learn from the books!" Meanwhile, Everest is watching Weiss behind Port through the visor. Confirming his suspicions that Weiss fully expected for her to be the leader, considering the resentful attitude she's giving Ruby. 'Come on, Weiss. Ruby came up with the plan back there. Give her a break.' Meanwhile, Port's still blabbing.

"- And of course, I took it down with the finest of form! Afterwards, my mentor said to me, "Peter! You-"" Thankfully for Everest and just about every student here, the bell rings. "Oh! It appears that's all the time we have for today. Remember, your assignment for today is to read the assigned pages, and work on the problems provided. And as always: Stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

'Oh thank god.' Everest thought as he left. 'I've had enough sh*t to deal with today, and I'm tired as hell.'

"Everest!" The cheerful voice of Ruby snaps him out of his mental complaining. "What happened to you in Ozpin's office? Why are you bloody...?" Yang pops up on the other side.

"Yeah! You look like you got beaten up by a horde of Ursae to have your Aura wear out like that!" Blake's voice trails behind him.

"I'd like to know what happened as well." Everest sighs, rolling his shoulders and grunting a little as that action irritates his clawed shoulder.

"I'll tell you all later. Right now I need to catch a breath and a lot of breaks. Alright?" They nod, and as they start to go off, Everest quickly grabs Ruby's shoulder, inciting a yelp.

"Ruby, where's Weiss?" She looks around. "You should go find her and talk to her. I think she's irritated about not recieving the place of team leader, from the looks she gives you." Ruby nods, and Everest lets her go. 'Now that's finally over...'

"Sir, I believe I you have forgotten about the resupply canisters our Prowler is stocked with," the disembodied voice of Brez just not letting Everest take a break. "You can resupply at any time, rendering your previous rant unnecessary." Everest snorts.

"Yeah. Thanks. Looks like they left that little detail out when they handed me the ship."

"They also come with a 'return to sender' ability that allows the canister to be either launched or teleported back to the ship. Maybe you can ask around the school for a weapon's forge of some sort and gather materials for the automated lab to study. Maybe improve your weapons and armor."

Everest is silent. "... Brez. I am very certain that the Prowler wasn't stocked with those pods. I don't even think they existed. Where'd they come from?" He could swear Brez was laughing in joy.

"Slipspace rupture opened some ten minutes ago, dropping off a little package into the hangar bay. Tell you what. Go to sleep. There's going to be a pleasant surprise for you outside the tent when you wake up."

He sighs. "Hey, Brez? I'm sorry about my outburst in the Pelican earlier."

"An apology? For me? That's a first."

 **A/N: I am increasingly disappointed in my ability to type as the story goes on. Fitting in dialogue is just awkward for me, and I am still not on a fixed format for the story. There are also some things I just felt were wrong but I didn't know what. Oh well. Please leave a review if you feel something is off, maybe a lengthy description of where I can take the story next. I feel like I'm just inserting an OC's reactions and actions into the RWBY timeline, and that just feels cheap and it's like I'm cheating everyone who reads this.**


	6. Twice The Kicking, Twice The Laughter

**A/N: Evinco. You. Your review will be taken into consideration, if not able to be implemented immediately.**

 **Guest who reviewed Chapter 1. I just went and took a look at TallYapflip's fanfic again, and I am quite frankly ashamed that my take on a RWBY x Halo crossover had the beginnings of the two fics rather similar. However, to respect Allep360's review, I will not be introducing the Covenant nor the UNSC on/near Remnant any time soon. Instead, messages will be sent back and forth between 'Everest' and the UNSC via Slipspace Communications Launchers in which a communications probe is launched into a Slipspace rift in high orbit, used in the Halo: Ghosts of Onyx novel. They aren't cheap. Similarly, occasionally 'Everest' will recieve supply drops through Slipspace ruptures like the one in Chapter 5.**  
 **TL;DR, There will be no incursion by the UNSC nor the Covenant any time soon.**

 **Anyway, apologies for going full Halo nerd on you faithful readers (Or whatever faith you have left). The story will begin now.**

 _Remnant, Beacon Academy, 'Everest's' Temporary Dorm, 8-10 Hours Later_

Everest was rather rudely awakened by the unmistakable noise of something dropping in from orbit and crashing into the ground. Rolling out of bed, groaning as he does so, as he accidentally slept in his bloody, scarred armor, he stumbles to the window, brushing aside the curtain. The smoke trails is still visible.

"Happy birthday, sir."

Everest practically sprints out of the room, shouldering the door open and shaking his head to clear the morning drowziness, making him bump into a few walls before stabilizing himself.

"Brez, if those pods hit anyone or any structure, I am going to disconnect you from all systems and leave your AI chip in the Pelican." He continues running through the hallway, dodging students and attracting strange looks from them.

"Of course, sir. Though, I already detect a crowd of students gathering on the site. It appears they are already trying to open it." This incites the SPARTAN to start full-on sprinting, utilizing thrusters.

"Oh, hell no, they're not taking my shit!"

 _A Few Seconds Later._

Kicking open the door and sprinting outside, he notices the small crowd mentioned by Brez earlier, most notably Team CRDL, as their leader actively strikes the pods, trying to crack it open. To the leader's chagrin, the pods are more durable than he thought. Everest quickly steps forward to the pods, and to CRDL. He now recognizes the pods as modified M2859 Materiel Acquisition Pods, set only to open on his or Brez's command instead of on impact. There are ten of them.

"Hey!" he shouts in a hard voice. "Back away from the pods. Those are mine." RDL ignores him, though their leader, Cardin Winchester, steps away from a pod and shoulders his mace, whatever it is.

"And who are you, tin can?" This catches the attention of his team and the other students crowding around the drop zone. "I don't see your name on these. Finders keepers, amIright?" This snobby remark makes his teammates laugh obnoxiously, even drawing a few hesitant chuckles from the crowd. Everest clenches his hands, rather annoyed. High school indeed.

"Oh yeah? Let's see you try to open them, then." he says, crossing his arms and standing next to a pod. Adding quickly in a whisper. "Brez, confirm the contents of all of these pods and list them on my HMD *****." The pods are highlighted in his VISR system, each sprouting information about its contents. He ignores all but the information coming from the pod Cardin was about to try to open. Whispering again, he says "Brez, initiate the asset denial protocol on target pod. I don't need concussive grenades here, especially stripped-down versions." As the mace descends and is about to strike it, the top of the pod emits a red light, and the top of the pod bursts open and the two grenades inside detonate with a loud bang, throwing Cardin off his feet and wiping the smug look off his face as he's tossed all the way into the crowd surrounding the pods and the people next to them.

"Man, Cardin, you treat your ladies the same way too?" The crowd laughs as Everest opens the pod he stood next to, the shell just opening like a graceful flower blooming. White vapor spreads out from the pod as the insides are warmed to room temperature. Everest just simply reaches in and extracts the contents. 'An ARC-920?' he thought as he examined the bulky rifle ****** , still having little streams of white vapor rise from the gun's frame. 'Good Lord! I need to thank Brez later!'

"What did I tell ya?" Brez says inside the helmet. "Happy early birthday, have a Railgun and some other gifts that you haven't blown up yet." Meanwhile, Cardin managed to recover, emerging from the crowd angrily and waving his mace at anyone nearby who continued to laugh.

"Not funny, tin can. I'm gonna find a way to find these pods, one way or another. Back off before I get tired of you." Not fazed, Everest casually strolls to another pod, shouldering the Railgun.

"Keep talkin', fool. Maybe I'll get tired of you first if you don't step away from my belongings. I'll let the first or second incident slide, but you'd better haul ass out of here." To which Cardin snorts, regaining his cocky attitude. He motions to his team, pointing at Everest. 'Cronies, more like.'

"Get him outta here."The three charge at him, brandishing their weapons. The one with the two daggers arrive first, another boy stands aside with his sword starting to open from the middle of the blade, and a blue-haired one is in the back, seemingly slower due to the massive halberd he carries. The crowd starts to back off rather quickly, sensing the danger.

"Come at me, bro!" Everest challenges, spreading his arms. Dagger-boy attempts a cross-cut with his daggers only to have Everest duck under his strike and recieve the butt of the Railgun to the chin, knocking him down as Everest charges the rifle ****** at the same time. Sword-boy points the split blade at him and Everest recognizes a gun muzzle in the middle. Spinning around and crouching, he fires a partially-charged projectile at the boy, who is sent flying into the crowd, but not before the boy managed to fire off several shots at him, the shields stopping the projectiles cold or deflecting them into the air. Halberd-boy finally arrives, preparing for a titanic overhand strike. Unfortunately for him, it was the wrong time to prepare such an attack, as Everest aims the cartridge ejection port at his face, and sends a heated, spent clip at him. The boy staggers from the unexpected makeshift projectile, and recieves a gigantic uppercut from the SPARTAN, sending him airborne. Shouldering the rifle ****** , he points at Cardin.

"That all ya got? You got any more cronies to send at me, send them now." Cardin angrily spits to the side, brandishing his mace.

"I'm gonna-"

"BOYS!"

The crowd parts to allow a very angry Glynda and an indifferent Ozpin through to the makeshift arena the crowd provided. Heads slowly turn as she storms towards Everest, with a smirking Cardin in the background as his team slowly regroups, staggering around on their feet.

"What do you think you're doing, Everest, you could have hurt or even killed someone with that!" Everest just shrugs, shoving in another cartridge much to the annoyance of Glynda.

"So you're saying those bullets fired at me wouldn't have killed anyone either? Or maybe a stray swing from a massive halberd from a boy who's clearly overcompensating for something?" At that, said boy's facial expression sours. Everest smirks behind his helmet. Glynda was about to retort when she's interrupted by Ozpin, who's inspecting the opened pod.

"Now, now, Glynda. Don't be so hasty as to immediately assign blame to the newcomer."

"But sir, that rifle ****** -"

"Would have injured as many students as the bullets fired. If you notice the area around which the crowd gathers, you would notice these pods. This specific design is not seen in all of Remnant, so it may be safe to assume that they are the belongings of our newcomer. I merely suspect that someone tried to claim something that was not theirs. The expressions of CRDL sours. Everest decides the runts needed a more thorough... lesson.

"Ozpin, I would like to suggest a punishment for the four who attempted to hijack my items." Glynda looked furious at that statement, but Ozpin holds up a hand, silencing her again.

"And what would that punishment be, Mr. Everest?" Everest almost failed to silence his laughter. 'Oh boy, I can't wait to see their faces.'

"I do believe Ms. Glynda hosts a fighting class which should be starting soon. I simply request that a scheduled match be taken between me and Team CRDL. The _entirety_ of Team CRDL, mind you." Glancing towards the four, he notes Cardin retained his smug smile, while the other three look shocked. Everest silently chuckles.

Glynda actually looks surprised. She looks at Ozpin, who says nothing, but keeps his smile. She huffs.

"Very well. Team Cardinal, you four are going up against Everest first thing when you enter my class." As she turns around and starts walking away, Ozpin lingers a bit, still smiling.

"Mr. Everest? Please try not to cause more harm than necessary."

As the two walk away, Everest gives CRDL another glance. They're walking off rather quickly, the three boys he trashed speaking to each other fast, judging from the speed of their lips moving. His view is suddenly blocked as someone jumps on his back and a red sheet of cloth swings around and blocks his VISR. With a mental slap, Everest realizes he has been paying less attention to the motion tracker.

"AAAAAAAAAAA Everest you were awesome! You totally kicked their butts! Also can I see that gun I really want to try to shoot it..." Everest lightly pushes away the cape away from his face. The crowd starts to disperse, though those who managed to catch the sight of a small girl practically flying into Everest and hugging him walk away with smiles and/or laughter.

"Yeah!" Everest turns around to see WBY, Yang's speaking. "You totally destroyed them! I wouldn't mind a chance to fight you again sometime, Everest." 'Again? Hell no. I'm not getting close to that female Kill Ball.' Weiss crosses her arms, looking displeased.

"I don't know where you got that Lightning Dust, but it better have not have come from my luggage. Why did you ask for a second fight? Overconfidence is going to get you killed one day." 'Lightning Dust? I'll ask her later.' Yang lightly punches Weiss on the shoulder, to the princess' displeasure.

"Come on, Weiss! He'll hand them their rears on a silver platter!"

"Hmph! I still want an explanation on where you got that Dust. I clearly saw the blue energy on your gun before and after firing." Blake sighs.

"Calm down. I'm sure he'll explain himself soon, Weiss." Everest clips the Railgun to the magnetic strips on his back, walking back over to the pods.

"Yeah. I will, maybe in your dorm or something. I gotta unpack." They nod, before Blake notices something.

"Hang on, Everest, do you have a Scroll?"

"A Scroll?"

"I suppose not." Blake holds out a flat rectangular device, not all that different from the tablet Ozpin had in his office when he called Everest's bluff. "Here. Ozpin said I should give this to you, assuming you didn't have one. I'll give you directions to our room here." Everest nods, taking the Scroll.

"Thanks, Blake. Ya'll get going now, I'll see you four later."

As Team RWBY walks off (Ruby: "Do you think we'll get front seats to his fight?!"), Everest opens the pod he's standing next to. Reaching into the mist, he pulls out... a new, shining helmet. A ROGUE-Class helmet, to be exact, fitted with the Cyan VISR system, resistant to shock and corrosion.

"I'll be honest, sir. I was surprised when I saw this as well," said Brez. "This VISR system is not cheap, the ROGUE armor system is rare on its own, but this? This is custom made, with enhancements to just about every standard feature you can think of on your current armor and more. Did I only say the armor was custom made? I meant the VISR as well." Everest looks at the other pods, assuming some of them must contain pieces of this armor.

"I guess they expect me to stay out here for a long time. How kind of ONI to make that decision after I deployed here." Despite Everest's annoyed tone, he's rather excited to put on the armor, as proven by his swift steps to each pod, unlocking them all and looking at their contents. One pod even contained two new M6H Magnums and a new bodysuit, and another contained a strange object that Everest did not recognize. "Damn. They went all out on this supply drop."

 _Remnant, Beacon Campus, Team RWBY's Dormitory, 15 Minutes Later._

Everest had changed into his new armor (( A/N: A vague blot camo is on the armor. Dark gray and gray for the colors. )) and is now leaning on a wall in Team RWBY's rooms, having just endured Ruby's hyperactive inspection of his new armor. When asked what the new armor does, Everest could only shrug. Even now, behind the VISR, he's reading off all the upgrades that came with the suit, presented by Brez on the VISR in a paced manner for Everest to read through them.

"So. Weiss." The heiress turns around, looking at him curiously. "The Railgun was not charged with Lightning Dust, the blue flare was a product of the system charging to launch a High-Explosive projectile. But you got my attention. Judging from the name and your assumption, do you think I could fit the gun with some Dust cartridges?"

"Absolutely not," Weiss denied. "I only brought a year's supply of them with me, and I can't afford to spare any." To which Ruby zips in front of Weiss with her puppy dog eyes.

"But Weiss," she whined. "It'll be cool! We'll get front seats to Everest's cool gun and everything!" As Weiss tries to push Ruby away, Yang interrupts Weiss's incoming retort from the top of a makeshift bunk bed, which when Everest thought about it, looked highly unstable.

"Yeah, come on, Weiss! We all saw you with those large cases of dust, it won't hurt to spare a little to a friend in need, right?"

Blake replies. "He doesn't exactly _need_ them, (Weiss: "Thank you!") but it would be interesting to see the results, to say the least." (Weiss: "How dare you!")

"Ugh. Fine! You may borrow some Dust powder to fill whatever cartridge you use, Everest. Just don't expect any more." Everest silently tries not to laugh as Weiss gets up from her bed and slides a briefcase from under her bed. "Here," she says as she slides the briefcase to Everest, who stops it with his foot. "That's all you're going to get." RBY looks rather shocked. That's a lot of Dust, if they're all powders.

"Wow... uh, thanks, Weiss." Everest bends down to pick up the breifcase by the handle, noting the breifcase has a little warning sticker. 'Caution: Highly Volatile? I guess I should expect as much.'

"Don't mention it. Like I said, that is all you're going to get from me. You'll have to go buy your own."

Blake smirks. "You want him to buy Dust from the stores so your dad's company can milk him for his money, huh?" Weiss turns on her, looking angry.

"That's not true! It's not like he always needs Dust in that gun of his! He could be smart and conserve them for when he needs them most!" Meanwhile, Yang slowly starts grinning. 'Uh oh.'

"Hey, Ruby," Yang calls. As Ruby turns around, Yang drops it. "When you caused an explosion in the middle of the campus from the Dust, could you say that you Schneezed?"

"Ugh..." -R  
"Why..." -E  
"..." -B  
"Yang!" -W

 _5 Minutes Later, Everest's Temporary Dorm._

Everest quickly looks over the Dust vials and cases he unpacked from the briefcase and set on the table. There's all kinds of Dust ammunition set in a neat array. The information about all the suit upgrades and systems finally all perform a neat little animation of all the words being crammed into five folders, then merging into one large folder marked "Help". Everest would have found humor in that if he weren't in a rush.

"Ugghh, gonna be late if I don't hurry uuuup." He mutters to himself. "So much to choose from, though..." He makes a decision as he grabs four vials and empty Railgun cartridges, filling them up with one different-colored vial per cartridge. Packing them onto ammo pouches along with magazines for the Magnums, he starts to leave the room, stopping when he notices the strange object the supply drop had included. With a bit of hesitation, he picks it up and puts it on his hip, then dashes out of the room, locking the door, and sprinting out.

 _3 Minutes Later, Sparring Arena._

Everest slides to a stop outside the door, quickly opening it and entering.

"Looks like everyone made it here before you," Brez commented. Glynda adjusts her glasses, holding a clipboard. Team RWBY and JNPR, who had apparently been told the story by someone from RWBY, turn around along with the rest of the class, waving to Everest. He politely nods hello.

"Everest. I was just getting to you in role call. You were the final one on the list," she says as she looks down on the clipboard, crossing something off. Probably his name. "Now that you're here, we can get started. Everyone," she looks up, addressing the class. "We have a special event today. As you may or may not have heard, following the... incident this morning, Everest has requested a one-on-four handicap match with Team Cardinal." This incites a cheer from Ruby and Yang, the former immediately settling down and looking embarassed as the entire class turns to look at them. "If you five could come up now to the arena, we can get started." Everest walks to the left side as CRDL walk to the right. Reaching his spot, Everest turns on a heel to face CRDL, which he notes that they seem to have recovered their confidence and cocky attitude. 'Good. All the more to smash their expectations into the ground.'

Unexpectedly, when a screen activated above the arena showing four life bars of CRDL, Everest's profile shows an error: No Aura. 'What? Aura?' Turning his head to look at Glynda, she looks confused as well. Everest hastily steps down from the arena, drawing snickers and jeering from CRDL and confused looks from RWBY and JNPR, he approaches Glynda, dropping his voice to a whisper.

"Glynda, what's Aura? And before you give me a look like I'm stupid, remember I'm not from around here." Glynda sighs, adjusting her glasses again.

"Putting it in words you can understand, Aura is a manifestation of one's soul. The person can summon his Aura into a physical manifestation as a barrier, protecting himself in this case," gesturing towards the arena. "However, it appears you have not unlocked your own Aura yet. I'll have to cancel the match." To this, Everest puts up a hand.

"Hang on. I have an idea." Glynda raises an eyebrow as Everest quickly jogs to the center of the arena, using it like a stage. "Alright everyone," he calls, getting the attention from the spectating class. (Ruby: "What's he doing?") "Due to me apparently not unlocking my Aura, we must apparently cancel the match." This draws disappointed 'Awww's from the crowd (Blake: "No way. He survived in the forest for that long without his Aura?") (Yang: "That explains why he got injured yesterday! He looked like an Ursa beat right through his Aura because he didn't have one! But what was that yellow shimmering over his armor when I hit him, then?") "But," Everest continues, the audience looking confused now. "As my ancestors once said: The show must go on. Brez? Do your thing."

Looking thoroughly confused now, even more so when the screen above the arena flickers and Everest's side of the display flickers and changes into a familiar, spinning symbol for Everest. ONI. A pale blue fire erupts in front of the icon, flaring as a voice came from the loudspeakers.

"Hello. I am Brez, SPARTAN E-4157's advanced Artificial Intelligence. (Weiss: "What? Impossible! Not even Atlas has that kind of technology!") You may have noticed the man who stands before you does not seem to meet your criteria to participate in an arena match. However. I assure you, he does, in fact, meet that criteria in another way." Everest snaps his fingers and returns to his original position in the arena, CRDL looking uncomfortable. The display flickers again, and returns to normal, except two bars appear in place of his Aura bar. The top bar, thicker and longer than the bottom, flashes the words: Shield Status Loading. The bottom bar flashes: Health Status Loading... Override. Minimalizing Health Readout. This draws murmurs from the crowd. Glynda is looking shocked that something managed to hack the system and display its own information. Yang, unlike everyone in the room, is on the edge of her seat, waiting for a miracle to happen. And miracle it is."What you are seeing before you is a live feed of SPARTAN E-4157's shields and health, per sey, provided by his armor. With your Ms. Glynda's permission, of course, Everest requests that the arena match continues as planned using this as a placeholder until the situation is solved." Glynda hesitates for a second, then nods affirmation. The spectators cheer for the newcomer. "Thank you. Hijacking system (Glynda: "What?!") to manually initiate countdown on Everest's mark and adjust display as required." The number 10 appears in the middle of the screen, not counting down yet.

Cardin yells at Everest over the crowd's excited talking. "I don't know what game you're trying to play, tin can, but know this: You're going down as a scrap heap!"

"Kiss my ass(Yang: "Hahah! He reminds me of me!"), Cardin!" Everest retorts as he draws his two Magnums, each loaded with Dust rounds. The left gun is using fire, the right gun is using wind. The display flickers again, and Everest's side of the screen is switched to his helmet display, minus the information Brez is putting for the SPARTAN on the VISR. (Ruby: "Oh my gosh, we get to see him kick butt from his point of view!") (Blake: "This ought to be interesting.") "Start the countdown, Brez."

"Starting signal recieved. Beginning countdown." 10 flashes to 9, and so forth. CRDL prepares their weapons with fancy flourishes as the crowd falls silent. He may be a newcomer, but the show he put on as well as the helmet feed from the initation certinally made the crowd at least curious to watch his performance.

8...  
7...  
6...  
5...  
4...  
3...  
2...  
1...

The buzzer sounds, and the combatants charge at one another. Everest turns on the holographic sights on the two Magnums, and starts spraying wildly at the approaching CRDL. Halberd-boy is knocked aside from a flurry of miniature explosions and concussive blasts, fire and wind, respectively. Sword boy rolls out of the way, Cardin stands his ground, but what surprises Everest the most is Dagger-boy _deflecting_ the bullets with said daggers, and even continues to do so. 'What?! When were these people ninjas?' As the boy jumps up into the air to slash at Everest, he dives under him with thrusters assisting his movements and unloads the fire mag on Dagger-boy's rear. Not having time to react, as the thrusters have been upgraded to high speeds, his rear would have been cooked if it werent for his Aura. The life bar on the display for Dagger-boy drains and bleeps red. Brez being Brez, an animation of a stamp falling on the boy's image is played. The stamp reads: Roasted! (RWBY & JNPR: [Laughing]) Dagger-boy falls to the ground, rump smoking.

Everest continues on his warpath to Cardin, who's staying in the back. 'Coward.' Halberd-boy comes in from the side, attempting a horizontal chop. Everest easily jumps over the strike, and uses his thrusters to direct him back at the fool who just tried to cut him down, delivering a hefty blow with the butt of his pistol. The boy is thrown from the arena, Aura bar draining completely. Another stamp animation, this time reading: "Pummeled!"

Putting away his two Magnums, he runs at Sword-boy with fists. As the boy raises his gun-sword, Everest notices his VISR is suddenly tinted red. His armor lights turn red and Cyan VISR also fading into a bright red, maroon sparks flying from his hands. The boy dares to fire shots at Everest, shield bar draining somewhat with each shot, before rolling to the side to dodge an actual _flaming punch_ from Everest. (Yang: "Heheh. I think he took a leaf out of my book.") Everest turns to Sword-boy, fist steaming, before Cardin decides to make a move and try to bash the back of his head with his mace. Unfortunately for Cardin, he is unaware of a motion tracker in Everest's VISR system, to which he promptly turns around and deals with the threat by throwing another flaming punch with his other fist, sending the offender into a wall and bouncing off of it, landing on the ground, groaning. Aura bar drops to orange. Sword-boy, now on the other side of the arena, feels safe enough to start firing at Everest again, draining shields to a third of its original capacity. Everest's ROGUE armor flickers again, the lights and VISR turning yellow and instead of sparks, little yellow tendrils of electricity would spark from his feet. The SPARTAN suddenly puts on a burst of speed, as if he wasn't fast enough, and makes it to the other side of the arena in a mere second from a standing start. The boy's eyes widen as the soldier's boot connects with his stomach, and he gets embedded in the wall. Stomped! says the stamp.

Everest turns around just in time to recieve a fireball to the VISR, throwing him backward and bouncing him off the wall, shield draining completely. He looks up to identify the threat: a red crystal in the middle of Cardin's mace charges up again, slowly creating another fireball in the middle of the hollow mace head. He scrambles up, grabbing his Railgun off his back and raising it, charging the electromagnets while taking aim. Cardin throws the fireball at him out of the mace, but Everest stands his ground despite his lack of shields. 'Pray to God this works.'

The fact that the Railgun didn't explode upon firing was astounding. What was even more surprising was the wide, sparking beam laser the Railgun produced. The fireball was completely removed out of the equation as the beam tore it apart and turned it into a small cloud of smoke. Cardin's eyes widen right before impact, throwing him against the wall again, embedding him in the wall. The barrel of the Railgun is red hot, steaming even. Cardin's Aura bar drains completely, and the system on default declares Everest the winner, drawing a round of applause from the spectators and whoops and cheers from RWBY and JNPR.

Everest discharges the cartridge, turning to the spectators and bowing, sliding the Railgun onto the magnetic strips on his back in one smooth move. Glynda steps onto the stage, eyeing the groaning CRDL.

"And that's the match, Everest wins in a one-versus-four handicap match. Congratulations." More applause. Everest can't help but laugh as he steps off the arena, walking to RWBY and co.

 _Thirty Minutes Later, RWBY Dorm_

Blake inspects the burnt cartridge as Ruby and Yang practically parties with JNPR. Weiss is sitting next to Blake, looking at the cartridge as well. The cartridge in question is completely burned out. It cannot and will not be used again. Blake looks at Weiss, the latter returning the gesture. Meanwhile, Everest passed out sitting against the wall, taking a short nap against his will. The stunt in the arena burned him out, and it wasn't even an extended engagement. Worth it. Brez made a tiny note in the "Help" folder. This equipment cost more than two fully-stocked fleets combined.

 *** = HMD. Helmet Mounted Display, the correct term. Heads Up Display (HUD) is used in fighter jets, where system data is located above the canopy and the pilot has to "look up" per sey. (Note: I forgot whether if it was system data or something else.)**

 **** = The ARC-920 actually stands for Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920. It is not a rifle, apparently. 343 wtf are you on?**

 **A/N: I'm not entirely sure if I agree with where I just went with this story. Did I just make the SPARTAN overpowered as hell or is he balanced against the more skilled villains of RWBY? Considering that he's a SPARTAN, even if it's IV, I personally believe that he would trump every student at Beacon in some way. The armor only enforces the brute strength. I may have exaggerated his strength in my last note last chapter. At the same time, I don't want him to turn into a Overwatch Genji rip-off. I humbly request guidance on how the next story should take place. I want this to be a Halo crossover, not an "OC absolutely demolishes everything effortlessly making the writer feel like a badass because it's his OC" story.**


	7. Second Serving

**A/N: I guess AU is an excuse for me to deviate from the story of RWBY whenever I feel like it, heh. Warning: Immature jokes by Yang. You have been warned.**

 **A/N: Yes, I am aware that there are names for Cardin's teammates. Yes, I know their names.**

 _1 Day Later, RWBY's Dorm. 6 AM._

Everest slowly comes awake. Lightly sighing and looking up, he notices the sun is barely shining outside the window. The curtain looks like a large corner of it was messily patched up. He looks around before doing a double-take and looking back at the curtain. 'Hang on, when did my curtain get ripped? When did I get a curtain? I had blinds in my dorm!' Then he notices the sloppily-made bunk beds. From his position, he can only see the tops of three beds, and thus three sleeping forms. He slowly stands up, trying to make no noise as he makes his way to the ajar door. 'Well. That happened. That's the last time I use these abilities all in one sitting.' He lightly pushes the door open, walks through, and slowly starts to close it before stopping cold. Blake had woken up, and is now sitting against the wall, arms crossed and smirking at him. Everest just slowly closes the door, making a soft thud as the door makes contact with the doorframe, then quickly walking away through the hallway. 'It's... about 6 AM. I may as well go kill time in the gym or something.' As he makes his way out of the building, he sets out on a light run to said gym. 'Brez is extraordinarily silent this morning. Thank goodness. He'd probably never let me hear the end of it.'

 _5 Minutes Later, School Gym._

Pushing open the door to the gym, he's surprised to see that the lights are still on, and the sound of a punching bag being... punched can be heard. Looking over, he's surprised to see Yang whaling on one of the two bags in her sports bra. 'Weren't they all asleep? Then again, that explains the door being slightly open.' Walking over, he decides to make his presence known.

"Hey, Yang." The blonde stops her abuse of the punching bag for the moment, turning around with a big smile.

"Hey, Everest! What are you doing here this early?" Yang goes back to punching the bag, still looking at him. Everest shrugs, adopting a fighting stance and jabbing at the other bag.

"I could ask the same to you, Yang." He lets loose a brief flurry of punches, then goes back to the proper stance. Yang smirks at him, momentarily stopping the punching.

"Did you enjoy your nap in a four-girl bedroom~?" Everest stops mid punch, turning on Yang, who stifles a giggle.

"Hey, it's not my fault none of you tried to wake me up so I could leave and not recieve a heart attack when I woke up." he says, crossing his arms. Yang just casually leans on her punching bag, putting a hand on her hip.

"Suuuureee. I've never seen anyone pass out that fast. Are you sure you didn't fake your nap so you could spy on us sleeping~?"

"No. Stop it. Bad Yang." She playfully rolls her eyes, giggling.

"You suuuure~? Who knows what goes on behind that hel- mmph." Everest claps a hand to her mouth. Yang just raises an eyebrow at him.

"Please. Stop. Let me beat up a punching bag in peace." He turns back to the bag, removing the hand from Yang's mouth. A grave mistake, as Yang couldn't resist another poke.

"You can try to beat me up if you want~" Everest slams the punching bag, spinning around and storming off. Yang lets out a laugh that slowly trails off when she realizes Everest is storming towards the boxing arena. He vaults over the ropes bordering the ring, then turns back to Yang, crossing his arms.

"... Well? Come on." Yang grins, cracking her knuckles as she jogs over to the ring, climbing over the ropes and standing on the opposite end of the ring. A few students have trickled into the gym for an early morning workout, though some stop to watch the two in the ring, and others immediately leave the second they see that it's Yang who's participating fighting in the ring.

"Wrestling or boxing, Everest?" To this, he just shrugs, Yang's grin growing wider. "Wrestling it is." Immediately, she charges at Everest, throwing a hook at his face. Everest blocks it, and counters by bashing Yang away with a shoulder bash. She rolls to her feet easily, charging back and landing a kick on his midsection, noting that Everest seems to have turned off the shield to even out the playing field. Brushing the thought aside, she tries to punch him again, but has her hand grabbed. The attempt to repeat with the other hand gives the same result. The two push at each other for a while before Yang winks and sweeps Everest's feet off the mat, slamming him into the ground with a now-free fist. Coughing, Everest immediately lashes out with a kick to Yang's chest, only making her stumble back somewhat. 'Well, I guess SOMETHING cushions that area. Ugh.' Kicking himself up, he lets loose a flurry of strikes that Yang manages to block, but finds herself being pushed back. She's caught off guard when Everest suddenly breaks form and sweeps her legs off the ground instead, karate-chopping her stomach and sending her into the ground, bouncing slightly on the mat. He rather quickly steps back as he notes that Yang's hair has been slowly glowing brighter as damage is sustained. She stands up, looking at him with a wild grin, and punches her fists together, creating a bit of a shockwave. The spectators slowly move back as Yang does so.

'Anyone smell smoke?' Yang practically flies at him and bats his punch to the side and clocking him in what should be the jaw with her forearm, knocking him back. She presses on the attack, beating down Everest and finally smashes him in the side of the helmet, knocking him down. He gets to a kneeling stance rather quickly as Yang leaps up and is about to smash him with a double-handed overhand swing, which Everest surprisingly blocks with his forearm and jumps up, hitting Yang in the chin with an uppercut, knocking her to the opposite side of the ring. Both combatants end up having to support themselves by leaning on either the rope or the pole, panting.

"Hey, tell ya what, Yang, surrender and make it easier for yourself!" Yang laughs, pointing at him.

"Let's make it whoever is knocked down first or is sent outside the ring loses, alright?" Everest shrugs.

"Fine with me!" Upon saying so, Yang charges Everest again, who just calmly steps forward. As Yang throws a punch at his shoulder, he ducks, grabbing her arm, bending over, and flips her over his shoulder, flooring her instantly. He chuckles, turning around and looking down at her. "Do I win?" Yang just flails on the floor.

"No fair, rematch! Rematch!"

 **A/N: AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA-**

 _Some Hours Later, Cafeteria/Mess Hall_

"I totally woulda won that!"

"I already won by your terms, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Lies!"

"Besides, you and your friggin' dirty comments made me want to punch something other than the bag."

Ruby snickers. "That's Yang for you! Glad to see someone else is recieving it instead of me." Yang rolls her eyes, and throws a grape at Everest's helmet, the grape just simply bouncing off onto Blake's plate.

"I still would have won! What you did was clearly cheating!" Everest shrugs, somehow eating inside his helmet, to the confusion of anyone who looked at him.

"It might have been cheating, but you must remember," he says, pointing a fork at her. "You wanted to wrestle instead of simply boxing." Weiss huffs.

"Oh, so that's what you two have been bickering about today. I thought it was one of those stupid games Yang likes to play." Yang turns on Weiss, smirking.

"That's 'cause you got your butt kicked every time you went against me." Weiss crosses her arms, snorting indignantly.

"How dare you! I clearly don't have time for those pointless games, I have classes to study for!"

"Aww, Weisso angry? Does Schnee need time off?"

"YANG!" Blake calmly decides to interrupt before the argument starts.

"Yang, if I may ask, what did you do to provoke Everest?"

"Oh, I was just teasing him about how he fell asleep in our dorm and stayed there until this morning." Weiss looks surprised. And angry.

"What?!" Turning to Ruby, who looks like she's trying to shrink in her seat. "Ruby, I thought I told you to wake him up so he could go back to his own room!"

"I'm sorry Weiss! I was really tired so I went straight to bed and I completely forgot about it forgive me please!" Blake turns her head to look at Everest, a light smirk on her face.

"I think I scared him half to death when he turned around to close the door and he saw me awake, looking at him." Everest chuckles.

"That you did. For a second I considered running." Ozpin's voice butts in over the loudspeakers.

"Would the student who goes by Everest please head to the office as soon as possible."

"Ooooh, sounds like someone's in trouble for peeking on us while sleeping~" Yang says as Everest stands up, right before Yang gets tackled by Ruby.

"Stop being nasty!" Everest just turns and leaves, shaking his head slightly as the two sisters fight each other again.

 _5 Minutes Later, Headmaster's Office_

As Everest exits the elevator, he notices his holographic projector next to Ozpin's desk, with Brez taking to him. Noticing his appearance, Ozpin looks up and greets him, Everest returning the gesture. Ozpin leans on his desk, putting his hands under his chin.

"Hello, Everest. As it turns out, your exceptional performance in fighting appears to have caught the attention of Vale's police force." 'What, am I gonna be arrested?' "They made the bold request that they borrow you for a mission into suspected White Fang territory." Everest was rather surprised. This is sudden.

"And what did you say, Professor?"

"I was going to give them a straight no, but I figured maybe you could have a say in this subject."

"I would give you my answer, but I would like to know why my AI is on a holographic projector, mine, to be exact, in your room." The pale fire flares on the projector.

"I have taken the liberty to dig through the network system used on Remnant. Apparently these massive towers broadcast signals across the planet. Should one go down, there is nothing the other three kingdoms can do to keep their network operational." Everest holds up a hand.

"Two things. One, I never told you to infiltrate an entire planet's network. Two, if they detected your presence, which I'm sure they have considering you're in Ozpin's office, we're screwed, alright? You just hacked three different countries from Beacon's tower and they'll trace it here, and Ozpin's going to have to answer them and then we'll be in deep sh-"

"Ozpin only found out because I visually appeared on his monitor asking him questions about the nature of Vale, as per, of course, your mission's objective." Ozpin idly pushes a tablet away.

"Brez confided in me that you were essentially here to log the planet and learn more about it should some form of civilization be present. Since I'm certain that if I kept you here as a student until you officially "graduate", you will not be able to perform your given duties as well, which will certinally also involve repricussions for me. I am simply offering you a choice to learn more about the... nature, of certain groups." Everest narrows his eyes behind his helmet.

"This is all rather sudden, Professor. It gives me the feeling that there is more to it." Ozpin nods.

"To tell you the truth, yes, there is more to it. However, it is more to satisfy my own curiosity about your kind. Exactly about what my curosity is about, I will leave as a secret. My offer still stands." Everest lightly taps his chin, thinking.

"... What is the White Fang, exactly?"

"People see it as a terrorist group who wishes nothing more than wiping out all human life on Remnant." 'But how do you see it?'

"Very well. Tell them I accept and will be on my way."

"Make your way to the landing pad, you will be taken straight towards the zone in which you'll operate."

"Do you mind if I take Brez along with me?"

"Not at all." Everest extracts the chip from the terminal and starts to head out, whispering to him inside his helmet.

"You're in big trouble, Brez."

"Oh, please. A little infiltration never hurt anybody."

 **A/N: I should probably take a break from this before I burn myself out.**

 **I do have a shocker planned for Everest soon.**

 **Anyone notice how I'm bad at fitting in multiple perspectives at once?**


	8. Deadly Precision

**A/N: Should I have Everest's old fireteam meet him or something?**  
 **Also, still looking for an actual name, you butts**

 **Note that there were a couple of Deviantart references in the last chapter. Heh.**

 _Remnant, Airspace, Unknown Location. About 11 PM_

'God, the Pelican is soooo much faster than this hunk of junk.' Everest gripes silently. 'I should have asked Ozpin if I could just take that instead.' Currently, Everest has equipped himself with the silenced Sentinel Battle Rifle loaded with standard UNSC M634 X-HP-SAP ammunition along with the SMG, loaded with Fire Dust rounds, as well as a grenade. The police department also gave him blue flares to use to signal an evac and small adhesive explosives. They said not to be fooled by its size. He also took the strange object with him, as recommended by Brez. Apparently, it's Forerunner in origin and sent to him for field testing, of all people. He runs a check over the BR one more time before the Bullhead's pilot signals him in his radio.

"We're over the LZ. Your Area-of-Operation is approximately half a kilometer north of your current position. Don't screw this up." 'It's even stranger that this planet uses the metric system.' Everest stands up from his seat and walks to the bay doors of the Bullhead, scanning the area and turning on night vision before hopping out. He lands softly on forest ground, using thrusters to slow his descent. He looks up to watch the Bullhead slowly angle its twin engines and fly off. Looking back down and racking the bolt on the rifle, he sets out to his destination, activating his stealth package in his custom ROGUE armor, the armor lights flickering out to a black along with his Cyan VISR, now resembling the Midnight VISR module. The active camoflauge is activated partially to maintain cloaking efficiency past crouch-walking speed, creating a dark blur behind him as he sets off on the trail as a semi-solid phantom in the dark.

 **A/N: A little gore or something here, shouldn't be too bad.**

It wasn't long before he had to duck behind a tree and fully cloak as he encountered a White Fang patrol. One guard had fangs, the other had a tail of some sort. The two guards slowly walk past him, quietly talking to one another. He levels his gun at their heads, lightly tapping the trigger. The two guards lightly nod to one another about something, when suddenly they whirl around, leveling their guns at Everest's general area. Unfortunately for them, both guards each recieve a quick 3-round burst of bullets, the 3rd shot of each burst piercing their skulls as the first two bullets are blocked by their Aura. They both drop without a sound. Gun smoking from the tip of the silencer, he silently curses as he realizes he will have to leave full camo on. Somehow they noticed him in the dark while partially cloaked. He slowly walks over to their corpses and drags them into a bush, then walks back to the pool and trail of blood and lightly kicks dirt over them.

"You know, sir, Remnant's bullets don't seem to pierce Aura often." Brez says as Everest slowly starts walking up the trail to maintain cloaking efficiency. "They end up tiring the target as they collide with their Aura. When they drop, they're knocked into a coma for a day or more. In extreme cases, they suffer cardiac arrest. Your normal bullets appear to have outright killed the targets." Everest does not respond, though he does look down at his rifle in wonder briefly. 'That either means standard UNSC Battle Rifle ammunition has more penetrating power than Dust rounds, or their Aura is just weak. Could be both.' He slowly continues on the trail, walking on the edge to stay closer to the trees and bushes for cover. 'It's going to be daylight by the time I get there at this point,' he silently groans.

 _One Hour Later_

Everest had encountered several groups of guards along the trail at this point. Thankfully, he was able to take them down without being detected, learning from his first error in the mission. Noticing the trail ends close to a clearing, he darts to a nearby tree at the edge of said clearing, looking through the area in his scope. A heavily fortified base, they called it. To him, it looked like a light Insurrectionist encampment. Thick ten foot high walls, featuring a catwalk with barbed wire strung about its railing. Guards slowly walk along the rails, all featuring animal characteristics like the guards he killed. 'What is this, a terrorist cosplay cult?'. A wide three-story building is in the center, the third story being smaller than the two stories below it. There are guards positioned on top of the second story. He slinks over to the wall, leaping over onto the catwalk easily, thanks to the modifications made to the assisted-movement system in his armor. He lands with a soft tap on the metal, sweeping the area with his rifle. No one noticed the little stunt, so he hops over the rail lightly and lands on the dirt, quickly darting to a box and crouching behind it.

Now that he's inside, he feels that the base looked more like a supply depot. Boxes and crates are stacked everywhere, with some shipping containers marked with a snowflake on the side. A couple of trucks are lined up on the back wall, with some guards unloading the crates. Strangely, the base is not lit up at all, floodlights inactive and idle. And yet, not a single guard has tripped, instead smoothly stepping over low obstatcles. 'They appear to have some sort of night vision. Maybe behind the masks? How do they even see through them, anyway? They're just little slits inside the metal.'

Everest's objective was to eliminate all hostiles and, if possible, secure supplies and contraband for confiscation. If the latter was impossible or some complication arose, he would blow the base up to hell; asset denial. Glancing towards the building, which seems much closer now that he was in the base, he notes an open door. He slowly walks to it, peeking in. There is a guard with his back turned to Everest, the interior containing more scattered boxes and some laptops on top of them, along with necessary structural support pillars inside. Everest darts behind one of the pillars and roughly grabs the guard's shoulder, yanking him back. His tanto knife springs to his hand and he quickly stabs the guard through the mask, dropping with a soft thud.

Everest knows Brez is silently working behind the scenes, mapping the area as Everest progresses and scanning the area regularly as well as recording his deadly work through his helmet's camera. The map would be used if the base contained a subterranean section and needed a quick escape route. The scans are to log the supplies and to detect if there was an underground level, the logged supplies rapidly scrolling through on the left side of the VISR display. He looks at his ammo counter on the top right of his HMD, having already spent one full clip on the guards patrolling the area. Glancing at the stairs, he makes a decision that maybe the important stuff was on the third floor. He drifts over, silently ascending the stairs. Several guards were positioned inside, and upon ascending to the top of the second floor, more guards, this time armed with sniper rifles instead of the standard red rifles and pistols he has seen. He slowly walks to each guard, silently killing them with the tanto blade knife and letting their lifeless bodies fall behind the low wall they used as cover. A guard on the ground below had looked up and nearly alerted the base before falling over backwards behind a crate from a silent burst from the rifle.

So far so good. He hasn't been detected yet, but Everest starts to panic when he realizes the third floor has windows. 'Agh, f*ck! I'm an idiot!' He swiftly walks to the door, letting Brez continue scanning. A few seconds later, the scans identified a primed distress beacon ready to go at a moment's notice and a port to access systems and logs on the third floor. Cautiously scanning the area before lightly opening the door, he realizes his mistake. Right as he opened the door, a red blip appeared on his motion tracker, showing there was someone behind the door who just started moving. A guard holding a coffee mug stands stock still in front of the opened door. Behind him are a bunch of consoles and computers, and several guards. The unfortunate woman in front of him managed to shout a warning to her comrades before getting dropped. The other White Fang guards whip their heads around and raise their guns, spraying at the doorway. Everest grimly notes that these rifles seem to drain his shields more than the UNSC AR as he quickly shoots the distress beacon before strafing out of the doorway, shields flaring bright yellow. 'I guess stealth is out the window now.' he groans as he deactivates the stealth package, armor lights flickering and lighting up as his VISR fades into a cyan color. He crouches against the wall and peeks through the door, firing two bursts and taking down two of five guards. He recoils and goes back into cover as a shot splatters on his shield in front of his face. He hunkers down, waiting for his shields to regenerate, before the base is alive with the shouts of guards and soon, alarms start blaring throughout the area. Red lights start flashing. Brez quickly speaks up.

"Triggering the alarms also turned on a lockdown timer on that console. You have only a few seconds before the data is destroyed. Insert the flash drive as soon as possible, it can override the lockdown!" Everest groans. 'Great. More pressure.' His shields spark and regenerate, and he puts away the rifle and grabs the SMG on his side, turning on the blade and rushing inside through the gunfire. He sprays down a guard, the room lighting up bright orange as the Fire Dust leaves the gunman smoking, but unconscious. The remaining two guards run out of ammo, and drop their rifles and instead charge at Everest with blades, who blasts one of them before sidestepping the incoming swordsman, retaliating with a quick swipe with the blade. As the headless corpse drops, he dashes to the console and quickly locates an access port, slapping in a flash drive containing intrusion software.

"Give it sixty seconds. Try to leave the station intact during that time." Everest turns around, looking through the door. Seeing no one, he closes it and closes the improvised blast shields over the windows and doors, leaving the room solely illuminated by the flashing red alarm. He ends up destroying the alarm inside the room to make it less annoying for himself, dumping out the clip and replacing it afterwards.

"Thirty seconds." Glass can be heard breaking, and soon something pounds on the blast shields, guards shouting. Suddenly, the shouting dies away and the pounding is replaced with a loud buzzing sound. "They're trying to cut their way in!" As Everest was about to retort, the tip of a chainsaw already breaks its way through the blast shield and starts cutting downwards. 'No way! It can't possibly be that strong!"

"Fifteen seconds." The chainsaw is starting on its second cut, Everest swiftly walking to the console and puts his fingers on the flash drive.

"Ten seconds." The chainsaw is removed and is replaced with the sound of mad pounding and metal tearing as something tries to bash its way in.

"Five." The metal slightly bends.

"Four." The pounding stops.

"Three... Two... One... Go, now!" As Everest plucks the flash drive from the port and stores it away, the sheet of metal is literally kicked off and slams into a pillar support. Spinning around, he's suddenly grabbed and quite literally tossed out the hole in the metal, sliding to a stop amid a shower of sparks. Kicking himself up, he raises his SMG in one hand and tucks the BR under his arm to hip fire only to realize he's now surrounded by gunmen. Slowly turning around, looking at where he was tossed from, is a tall, muscular man wielding that chainsaw, dragging it as he storms menacingly towards the circle and speaks in a gruff voice.

"Stand aside, fools. I want this one for myself." The circle elongates into an oval to form a makeshift arena around the two. The brute revvs up the chainsaw. "Interesting. A human managed to sneak past Faunus guards in the dark." More and more guards, seemingly from the entire base, form up, the circle of guards growing larger around the two. "And yet, foolish enough to trigger the alarm right in front of your objective. I'm sure Adam would love to hang your armor on a wall as a trophy."

"And I'm sure I'd love to stuff all of your masks in a trophy case. Out of my way, fools." To which the brute laughs.

"Not a chance, filthy human." He revvs the chainsaw again.

"Filthy human? You all look human enough to me, idiots." This draws some growls from the circle, one guard even bold enough to fire a shot at Everest, only to cower and back off as the SMG is pointed at him. "All green, too. What do you even hope to gain with these fools?" The brute snarls at him.

"They are the start of a revolution that would bring freedom to all Faunus across Remnant. This is only the beginning, soon we will take this planet for ourselves and wipe out the oppressors." Everest clips his rifle to the magnetic strips on his back and puts away his SMG, the left forearm plate springing open and he takes out the Energy Sword grip in his right hand, the forearm plate closing. He flips the middle finger at the brute, flicking the handle and activating the two-pronged blade that is the Energy Sword.

"You can shut up with that bullshit. This is your last chance to get out of my way before you freaks lose your heads." The brute revvs the chainsaw again, this time the chain continuing to spin.

"If it is a fight you are looking for," he snarls, "So be it." With blinding speed, the White Fang commander/lieutenant/something charges at Everest, swinging the chainsaw at him only to have it blocked by the Energy Sword. 'What the hell is this damn thing made out of? It's not being cut!' He pushes the chainsaw away and slashes at the brute, only staggering and angering him, reinforcing the hypothesis that the guards' Aurae were weak. Everest raises the sword in the classic Energy Sword stance. The brute snarls and charges at Everest again, only to have the chainsaw smacked aside and his rump kicked.

"You are no human," he snarls, turning around. "What are you?" Everest momentarily lowers the sword, pointing at him.

"I am not the fool you expect will be an easy kill. I, am a mother fucking SPARTAN!" Going on the offensive, the SPARTAN charges the chainsaw-wielding brute, jumping over a horizontal slash with ease and retaliating with a drop kick to the face, dashing in and cutting wildly. It doesn't bother him that the sword hasn't gone through the man's Aura yet, he's focused on slashing away. The brute finally jumps back to escape the wild cuts, staggering about a bit, clapping a hand to his face mask. Shaking his head and roaring at Everest, he charges at him again, raising the chainsaw. Everest prepares to smash aside another chainsaw swipe when instead he's grabbed again and thrown, sliding across the ground and being kicked back by a guard (Guard: Agh, Monty almighty, my foot!) and smashed aside with the chainsaw, shields popping and colliding with the building. In the tumble, his Energy Sword was deactivated and dropped, clattering aside. He scrambles up, rolling aside to evade another charge. He's already tiring out, hurting all over from being tossed around. Brez rapidly speaks.

"SPARTAN! Quick, the Forerunner object!" Everest grabs it and mashes the button on it, only for nothing to happen. He clicks it a few more times before he drops his arm to the side, looking up as the brute laughs at the fail.

"What was that supposed to do, detonate the base in the hopes that all of us would die?" Everest grips the object and was about to throw it at the brute in frustration when a short radius around him starts rumbling. The White Fang guards all lower their weapons, looking around in fear as Everest's shields quietly regenerate. The brute stands straight, looking around. The area continues to rumble when the Forerunner object starts to glow with a dark purple light, almost black, if that was even possible. Brez quickly speaks.

"Slipspace ruptures! Nine small wormholes, forming right above you!" Everest quickly looks up. At that moment, the Slipspace holes open up, distorting the air around the SPARTAN. The holes are arranged in a half circle arching over him. The White Fang guards are starting to lose their nerve, fidgeting and aiming their guns wildly. Everest snaps his head downwards as the Forerunner object starts to vibrate strongly. Nine small, glowing pieces of metal suddenly come floating out of each hole and attaching itself to the handle, creating a hilt as the leftover pieces drift and form a layer over Everest's left forearm. The remaining fragments float above Everest, drifting around and shining silver and gold as the ruptures close with a small shockwave from each.

All is silent, then the hilt vibrates again and some pieces from the thin cloud above Everest drift down and rapidly assemble itself into a long, thin plate extending from the hilt. The building is illuminated with an orange glow, slowly fading into cyan as the hardlight sword is projected from the object. A large hardlight shield is projected from the pieces that collected itself around Everest's forearm. There are still many pieces in the air above him. Everest looks down at his new sword in wonder, looking it over and admiring the shine of the metal, despite being midnight, before being reminded of where he was with a gigantic roar from the brute, before charging at Everest to finish him off. He raises the shield, expecting a large force to come down on him. Surprisingly, the strike was effortlessly blocked as the chainsaw grinds on the shield. Everest holds it there for a second longer, trying to process what just happened before the shield starts flashing orange. He shakes his head to snap out of it, and pushes aside the chainsaw and counters with a hefty slash from his new blade. The brute staggers back, dropping to a knee as Everest presses on the attack again, thoroughly beating up the guard's boss right in front of them. Kicking him aside, he deploys a Drop Shield from his armor as the brute roars an order.

"Kill him!" The grunts all shoot at the shield to no avail, their boss growling and holding his shoulder as he runs off, retreating. 'Asshole.' The gunfire ceases as they run out of ammo, the shield still holding strong. The metal plates start to collect on Everest's armor, barely noticable other than some odd reflections. They stop and all flow towards the object and forearm construct, the shield and sword turning off as they form into the recognizable shape of Boltshots. He quickly catches one of the Boltshots in his left hand, the gun having formed from the forearm construct outside of his grip. Brez warns him.

"Those guns will drain your shield in 1.607 seconds of exposure, calculating from average guard accuracy. I suggest running for the window where you were tossed out and use it as cover."

"Thanks, Brez." He turns around, angling himself towards the room.

'3... 2... 1...' The shield drops and Everest sprints out of the area, gunfire echoing across the forest as he vaults into cover, shields flickering. He starts blind firing the Boltshots out the window, its homing hardlight projectiles inciting yells of pain as the shots blast right through their Aurae and drop them. Everest unloads the Boltshot clips wildly, letting the homing bolts do their work to stunning effect. Within seconds, as Everest's shields recharge, the second floor is a massacre. The Boltshots deconstruct and turn back into metal platings, attaching themselves to the armor gracefully, leaving only the object in his right hand. With some consideration, he slides that into the left forearm plate, walking to his Energy Sword hilt and picking it up.

"... Well done, SPARTAN. I haven't seen a display like that in a while, not even in your War Games simulations."

"Yeah, well, it's not like I played Juggernaut with two Boltshots against a crowd of incompetents and unshielded SPARTANs. That chainsaw guy was a dick, though." He primes a blue flare and tosses it outside, sitting against the wall and sighing. "Agh... I think I got some bruises on that one."

"You'll be fine. I wonder if the Aura shield only applies to natives of Remnant or they exist in all humans, though..."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure the spooks at ONI don't, 'cause they certinally don't have souls." The two laugh. Sighing again, Everest closes his eyes for what seems like a minute. When he opens them, he's greeted with the sight of a bloody, gory skull right up in his face. He literally screams and scrambles up, looking around and panting. The skull is gone. The blood from the fallen White Fang seem to glow in the dark, shadows move across his vision. He blinks. Everything is back to normal.

"Sir, are you alright? Your heart rate is off the charts!"

"Yeah, uh... did I pass out?"

"Five minutes, yes. Good Lord. If an AI could have a heart attack, I certinally had one there. What happened to you? Nightmare?"

"Something like that..." He shivers, taking a deep breath and looking around. "ETA on evac?" His answer is the faint roar of dropships heading in from the south, as he looks and steps out the window. Bullheads quickly approaching. Within seconds, they land all over the base, deploying soldiers and engineers as they check the crates. One Bullhead lands on the second story roof, opening the bay doors and revealing an officer, who promptly steps down from the dropship and walks towards the SPARTAN.

"That's our ride, sir" Everest slowly walks towards the official, who briefly looks around the area, inspecting the carnage and speaking.

"Gotta admit, man. That mission was suicide." 'The daily life of a SPARTAN. If only you knew.' "Oh, man, the morgue is going to have a field day today. I hope you left some alive in this mess."

"Yes, officer. Two inside the room behind me, knocked unconscious from Dust rounds."

"Great. Go on, get into the Bullhead and go home. I need to watch over the operation here. And soldier? Thank you. This particular base has caused us some trouble for a while."

"Just doing my job." Everest limps to the Bullhead and slowly climbs in, sitting himself down and looking at the bodies. His vision flickers and everything is shifted as if he was teleported into Hell itself, gore strung everywhere. The soldiers and engineers along with the official are gone, the bodies remain. Shadows move across Everest's vision and the blood from the dead bodies glow brightly again. One figure stands on the rooftop, a slightly feminine figure. It slowly turns around, looking straight at Everest, with glowing red eyes that seem to pierce right through his helmet. He maintains the stare, not sure if it was in fear or shock. Blinking again, the environment returns to normal. The figure is gone. Everest shudders, sitting back as the Bullhead closed its bay doors and took off.

During the ride home, Everest swore he could always see a feminine hand, pale and clawed, just in the corner of his vision, only to disappear when he turned his head to look at the empty seats.

 **A/N: This is not the shock I was talking about last chapter, though it is one of many. It was a random idea that came into my head about the world of Remnant. I am not going to spoil anything, :3**

 **Write a review, favorite, follow, etc. Have a nice day.**


	9. De Facto The Matter

**A/N: Heeelllooooo everyone! I'm sorry for not updating for the past few days, I've been rather caught up playing XCOM 2 and trying my hand at doing artwork! For a beginner I'd say I'm doing pretty well. Anyway, I hope you all are doing great, here's Part 9 of Reminiscent.**

 **A/N: This Author's Note was written two days later. I got hit by writer's block, I'm sorry for keeping some of you waiting.**

 _Beacon Academy, Morning._  
 _Yang PoV, sort of. Because why not._

Yang was awoken by a loud, drawn out shout coming from her side of the room. She bolts upright, looking around wildly. The rest of Team RWBY was also jolted awake. Blake hisses, practically jumping out of bed as an armored gauntlet punches straight through the wall above her bed. Ruby shrieks, Weiss is shouting angrily, Yang peeks under her top bunk to look at the new hole in the wall, and Blake's scrambling to grab Gambol Shroud. The fist unclenches, going limp, and lightly tugs at the wall as the hand starts to recede, but is stuck. RWBY stares at each other, wide eyed and rubbing sleep from their eyes. Blake slowly lowers her sword as Yang drops down from the top bunk, yawning.

"What was that...?"

 _We go back to Everest and his now-permenant dorm room._

'I can hear my f*cking heartbeat in my ears.' Everest has his left hand on the side of his head, right arm put through the wall. His heart is hammering in his chest and he's almost hyperventilating.

Just a minute ago, he had a similar nightmare to the one in the White Fang outpost, causing him to send a fist through the wall, nearly hitting Blake on the other side. He stands there, trying to calm himself down, then feels someone tapping the hand that was put through the wall. He looks up, then jerks the hand out, tearing a little more plaster out of the wall. The yellow eyes of Blake look back at him through the new hole with a raised eyebrow.

"... My bad."

 _Several Minutes Later, Downtown Vale. Unnamed location._

Sometimes, Everest silently debated taking off his helmet just for a little bit, maybe get some fresh oxygen instead of the filtered air in his helmet. Maybe take all the armor off so he could sleep better. Fortunately for him, he never did, lest he lose his ability to hide his extreme discomfort as he walked behind RWBY as they talked to each other about the Vytal Festival. He had beaten around the bush explaining what exactly made him put a hole in their wall and nearly giving Blake a black eye in the process, brushing it off as a simple nightmare and his reflexes. Which isn't far from the truth.

"So, Everest, what happened to you? We didn't see you for the rest of the day after Ozpin told you to walk to his office?" Yang said, looking back at him. He cocks his head a little, thinking.

"You know, I'm not sure if I have clearance to talk about it. I think I can only say that I accepted an overnight mission and that was it." As he speaks, Brez continues to push data around his VISR, then pulling up a quickly-scrolling file marked [Access Granted]. "Hm... scratch that. So, where should I start?"

"Why the sudden change of heart, Everest?" Blake looks at him curiously. He lightly taps the side of his ROGUE helmet's visor.

"You forget I have Brez up in here." Blake nods. "He files through information and such, it's graphically organized inside the visor so he can bring up information. But yes, asking again, where should I start?"

"Start it at the fun part, we all get bored at the beginning because nothing happens." said Yang, Ruby enthusiastically nodding her agreement. Blake rolls her eyes as Weiss continues to go on about the Vytal Festival, not realizing that the four were not paying any attention.

"You two get bored all the time," Blake replied. "I myself wouldn't mind where you started." Everest shrugs.

"Alright. I suppose you all are familiar with the name 'White Fang'?" Those listening nods, though Blake's eye twitches slightly. A swift breeze blows through the streets, seemingly making Blake's bow flick a little. 'She always has that thing on.' "Seems like it. I was given an option to head out on a mission to infiltrate a White Fang outpost by Ozpin. Apparently the Vale police department caught word of the initiation incident."

"Incident?!" Ruby jumps up and down rather excitedly. "That wasn't! It was amazing!"

"Ahem."

"Right... sorry."

"Anyway, I had accepted the mission. I felt like I wanted to get a firsthand lesson on the organizations in Vale as to grow more familiar with the kingdom. Perfect opp-"

"Boo!" Yang interrupts. "That's the boring stuff!"

"Well yeah, sure, but it's not like you're going to know what exactly happened if I said that I snuck past all the patrols to get into a classified location. (Yang: "Smeeh.") But anyways, I snuck past the guards patrolling the area. I don't know how they noticed me in the dark with cloaking half-enabled (Ruby: "Whoaaa..."), but they were easy to take down. I-" He was interrupted by Weiss, stopping outside an arch with the words: Welcome to Vale! printed on a white sheet strung in front of the archway.

"Do you mind?"

 _About five minutes later._

The group was essentially forced to listen to Weiss ramble on about the Vytal Festival and its glory. 'I mean, it looks fun, but hell if she doesn't make this annoying.'

"Why did we come all the way out here for the stupid docks?" Yang complained.

"Eugh." Ruby pinches her nose. "It smells like fish!"

"I heard the students from Vacuo will by arriving by the docks! As a representative of Beacon, it is my duty to greet them." Weiss says, starting to head to the boardwalk. Blake just crosses her arms, looking at Everest.

"She just wants to spy on them so she has an advantage in the tournament." Weiss turns on them indignantly.

"You can't prove that!" As they continue walking, Ruby suddenly stops, looking towards the buildings. Everest looks at Ruby, briefly wondering why she stopped, before looking at what caught Ruby's interest. A Dust shop, entrance surrounded by yellow tape. The two large windows have been shattered, the inside of the store a complete mess. Two detectives are standing in front of the entrance, one taking down notes on a tablet. The rest of RWBY took notice and started towards the entrance.

"What happened?" Ruby asked one of the detectives as the team got closer. The man with the tablet replied, looking up and momentarily stopping his note taking.

"Robbery. Second shop to be hit this week." The detective lowers the tablet and pen and turns his back to the group, walking to his partner standing outside the window, muttering. "Place is turning into a jungle. Yang sets a hand on her hip, frowning.

"That's terrible..." Everest crosses his arms, looking at the damage in an attempt to find clues. His thoughts are interrupted by one of the detectives exclaiming in an accent that blurred words together somewhat.

"They left all the money in!" The detective with the tablet shrugs, muttering to his companion, RWBY and the SPARTAN-IV still within listening distance.

"Yeah, it just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"

"Idunno. An army?"

"You thinking any... White Fang?"

"Yeah, I think we don't get paid enough." Weiss crosses her arms.

"Hmph! The White Fang. Those good for nothing animals are only good at causing chaos." Surprisingly, Blake speaks up.

"What's YOUR problem?" Weiss turns to Blake.

"MY problem? I simply just don't care for the criminally insane."

"The White Fang are hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus." Blake says, crossing her arms.

"Misguided?" Weiss raises an eyebrow. "They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!" Blake's retort was interrupted by Everest.

"Just saying, I can personally vouch for what Weiss just said. Like, one hundred percent." Blake glares at him. 'Something about that damned bow is just making me uneasy.' He continues on, however. "At this point, it doesn't matter if they're misguided or truly evil, if that even exists. They're a massive threat to everyone, and I mean everyone. Faunus included. Collateral damage is a thing." Blake waves him off.

"It doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale." Ruby cocks her head slightly.

"Mhhm... Blake's got a point. Besides, we never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into. Maybe it was him?" Weiss crosses her arms, speaking in a high-and-mighty attitude.

"That doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal." Blake's eyebrows furrow. Everest quickly speaks up again.

"I'm not going to disagree, but let's agree to drop the subject. Besides, not all Faunus are bad. There was that one rabbit Faunus back at Beacon, probably a bunch of others I didn't notice, right?" Blake's expression lightens somewhat. Suddenly, a cry rings out over the bustling sound of downtown Vale.

"Hey! Stop that Faunus!" 'Right on queue,' Everest groans as he rushes back to the docks, RWBY following him. On one of the ships that docked, two men chase a blonde Faunus with a yellow tail. They have no hope of catching him. The Faunus vaults off the ship and lands on the boardwalk, quickly hanging himself upside down on a lamp post with his tail.

"You good-for-nothing stowaway!" The shipmates call out.

"Hey, a no-good stowaway woulda been caught. I'm a great stowaway!" The Faunus called back, peeling a banana. The two detectives from earlier rushed down the boardwalk, throwing a rock at his face as they approached.

"Hey. Get down from there this instant." His response was the banana landing splat on his face. The stowaway flipped up to his feet on the lamp post, laughing, then jumping off onto the boardwalk and running away. His path took him right by the group, running off. 'I swear he winked at Blake there.' Everest thought, looking at her as the Faunus continued to flee. She looks like she just saw a ghost.

"Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition. And theeeere it goes."

"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss quickly shoots off in the direction of the ongoing pursuit, Yang and Ruby soon following. Everest notes Blake's still stnading there, eyes wide. Then she realizes Everest is staring at her, and quickly follows. 'I'm not going to even wonder how I can go one day in a lethal operation in the middle of an outpost concealed in a forest, and childish behaviors the next.' He shakes his head, chuckling to himself. 'I guess I'll leave them to do whatever.' he says to himself, uncrossing his arms and walking down the street. As he walks, he notices the civilian count around the area is slowly growing smaller as he continues along the docks. Those who remained gave him strange looks, but that had become the norm for Everest for the past few days.

His walk takes him further down along the port. There were barely any people around this isolated corner, and they all looked scared or anxious in some way, all headed to the more populated areas. 'I wonder if I entered some sort of slums district. Maybe I should head back...' Slowly making a U-turn and heading back, his motion tracker starts to pick up motion just barely inside its 40 meter range. He looks back. The signatures all appear to be moving through the buildings and shops, which all look deserted. As he continues to walk, he catches movement here and there as shapes dart through the streets and buildings. Everest's fingers twitch by his side, hovering over the Magnum pairs. 'I won't be surprised if I made it on the White Fang's top 10 most wanted list.'

As he passes by a building, an explosion rocks the area, sending hunks of concrete and a rather large slab at him. A quick activation of the Armor Lock package deflects the debris and makes the slab just crumble around him. Looking up, he just groans. Confirming his previous thought, several men with various weapons on the streets and in the buildings, weapons leveled at him. All wearing similar masks of the White Fang. 'Misguided as hell, that's what they are.'

"Stop right there, human. We will give you this one chance to surrender and no one will come to harm."

"The only people who will be harmed are the fools standing on the street." Everest suddenly dashes towards the building, sliding against the wall to take cover. Gunfire quickly breaks out, slowly shredding the concrete wall he crouched behind. He mutters to Brez, unclipping the two pistols from the magnetic strips on his thigh. "Brez, mark the targets for me." Seven red box outlines flicker to life in his VISR. Flicking the safties off, he darts inside the building, taking cover behind a counter while taking shots at the marked targets. One box flickers and dies out, two shake but stabilize. Their aim follows him and starts tearing up the room. 'Standing out in the open? Really?' He peeks out from the side of the counter, shooting at the militia standing still in the middle of the street. Some rounds spatter on his shield, but he shrugs them off as the men drop one by one.

With that short encounter, he swiftly reloads and clips the pistols to his thighs again. Stepping from the counter, he walks to the bodies. Six survived, unconscious. One particularly unfortunate person had caught more than two bullets, draining his Aura and killing him. Everest just shakes his head.

"Brez, notify the Vale police department that we need a bodybag and have six men to be taken into custody."

"Already done, SPARTAN. They're on their way." Everest stands over them, waiting for them to be picked up. About two minutes later, four police vehicles and one truck roll up on the street, sirens blaring. The men in the vehicles disembark, one of which comes up to Everest, who recognizes him as the officer at the end of his operation in the outpost.

"Your little companion told us about what happened here, as well as your request for a bodybag." The officer sighs, glancing at the corpse as his men lift and cuff the survivors. "Look, I appreciate your efforts in taking out White Fang in the middle of Vale, but you have to understand that you can't afford to outright kill any more of them. If people find out about this, we're going to have a load of shit on our hands trying to explain what happened, and I don't people saying Beacon trains killers." He looks down at the two Magnums. "I never thought I would say this in my entire career, but maybe you should switch to weaker weapons." As he speaks, a cop jogs to the bloodstain left by the corpse with a towel and spray bottle. Everest sighs.

"Yeah. Alright, I'll see what I can do about that. Maybe stun weaponry." The officer nods in agreement.

"That'll do. Just be more careful." He turns and heads back into his vehicle, his men returning to their own and starting to drive off. Everest turns around to see RWBY standing there in shock, Blake in particular.

"Ooooh my Dust!" -R  
"Ruby, don't look!" -Y  
"... Wh..." -B  
"What's wrong with you?! Are you trying to start a war?" -W

Everest sighs. 'F*ck."

 **A/N: I ended up rushing this one out so I could start a new chapter instead of being stuck on this one. So sorry.**


	10. ((Apologies from the author))

I apologize for having not updated this fanfic for about 3 weeks now, and I apologize even more if you had thought this was a new installment. I've been sidetracked alot from other games now that I returned home and regained access to my console and everything.

I have an unfinished copy of the next chapter currently sitting on my desktop, so take heart knowing that it'll see the light of day somtime.


End file.
